RELAX BY YOUR BETDAQ ORANGE AND BACK THE NAP AT SANDOWN: Daqman makes a good case out for Relax to score under a penalty at Sandown today but goes only half-stake and saves his bank for tomorrow.
LOOK OUT FOR A BIG-MONEY SATURDAY: The Saturday King has been in top form this year with jackpot winners at 6-1 and 5-1 (three times) plus a sequence of five winning naps in a row. Look out for big-money bets at Sandown, Haydock and Wincanton tomorrow.
In terms of trainer and jockey, the Royal Artillery Gold Cup is a match. Paul Nicholls has won it four times from seven runners saddled in the last decade, and Lucy Gardner has had more winners under Rules than all the other riders in the race put together.
They have first (Gwanako) and second (Railway Dillon) favourites as I check out the orange on BETDAQ this morning.
Railway Dillon has been a February winner in the last two seasons and loves heavy ground. Gwanako has won only at hunter-chase level in four years, both on a sound surface; that may be good enough here but he’s a small horse and has never jumped well out of the mud.
Double Dizzy seems sure to be involved; he will go into the race a stone lighter than when third at Plumpton 10 weeks ago. But Lord Tomnoddy has disappointed since winning a novice handicap at Ascot in November.
Fine Parchment has won at Graded level and has last year’s winning jockey, Richard Spencer, in the saddle; you just worry that his best form is when going left-handed, and that the Charlie Mann stable is not firing.
Pistol and Sash Of Honour have another shoot-out in the opener (1.20), with Sash Of Honour favoured by Pistol’s penalty but never able to get on terms with that one at Newbury. The final hill today will settle it.
Ruby Walsh is here with a double hand of champion rides, one for the top stable in Ireland, Willie Mullins’s Twigline (2.25), and one for the English champion, Paul Nicholls, There’s No Panic (1.50).
There’s No Panic is usually kept away from heavy ground, though it was hock deep at Wincanton when he trailed in last time, and he’s never won beyond 22 furlongs.
Mountainous goes in the ground but all his winning form is lefthanded. Richard’s Sundance seems to win only when fresh, and that just once a season, so he’s had his prize for this one.
I’m choosing Relax, whose stable is having its best season for many a year.. Relax won only eight days ago but scored back-to-back wins within three days last Spring.
Twigline (2.25) was not even favourite this morning, despite being eased down to win over today’s trip at Fairyhouse. The second and third have advertised the form only to a limited extent, both having been placed twice without winning since then.
She Ranks Me, on the other hand, beat a previous winner and a subsequent scorer into the places at Haydock, when she ‘cruised up’ (Racing Post form comments on the net, not mine).
Utopie Des Bordes beat ‘nothing’ at Doncaster but was twice better than Fago at home at Auteuil, one of them in a Grade 1 winner. She Ranks Me is ‘big’ at 5.3, despite giving away 5lb, but we need to take cover from Utopie Des Bordes, who would be maximum stakes as a win bet (he’s not that) but is a handy saver. I think the Mullins’ mare is having a look-see.
In the 3.30, the boots on the other hoof: this time it’s the Henderson horse, Master Of The Game, giving weight away, and he might well do it –was a Point winner on heavy – since Tominator has never won on the soft, Flat or jumps (form on soft and heavy: 300), though has scored with moderate cut.
Master Of The Game is yet another short-offers favourite, so I welcome the open market (a punter-friendly 106%) for the handicap hurdle (4.05), even though it’s another novices’ race.
Well, I thought I welcomed it but, after going through the form three times, I will settle for just an each-way bet on Liberty Court at 7.2. He’s never been out of the frame and has shown latent stamina on fast tracks, so should be suited by the finishing climb at Sandown.
364-1 WINNER: One personal memory of Ladbrokes PR Malcolm Palmer, who died this week, is when he and I went on to a dinner party after racing. An older woman he’d never met but who sat next to him at table (and opposite me) claimed to be ‘a bit witchy’.
She proceeded in one ‘guess’ after the briefest of introductions to him, and with no inside information from me or anyone else, to tell Malcolm his date of birth. M Palmer looked paler than if he’d been on the carpet of the then Ladbrokes’ boss Cyril Stein for laying an odds-on favourite at 10-1. Or in this case 364-1.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 4.5pts win SHE RANKS ME and 3.8pts (stakes saver) UTOPIE DES BORDES (2.25 Sandown)
BET 5.8pts win RAILWAY DILLON (3.00 Sandown)
BET 3.2pts win and place LIBERTY COURT (4.05 Sandown)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 10pts win (nap) RELAX (1.50 Sandown) and 2pts win treble the same one with Pistol (1.20 Sandown) and Master Of The Game (3.30 Sandown)
Daqman’s selections are backed to win 20 points, so you know the offer he took (divide 20 by the stake). Daq Multiples are staked as advised and settled at SP.
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