NOW IT’S A NAPS FOUR-TIMER: Daqman’s super naps sequence continued for the fourth day running yesterday with Spillway (WON 13-8) at Kempton Park.
SIX OUT OF SEVEN FOR 91 POINTS PROFIT: It was winning nap number six from the last seven (91.20 points profit) so that the current form of his best bets reads 1101111. Here are the six hits:
WON 8-15 (Simonsig, banker, Tuesday)
WON 1-4 (Sprinter Sacre, banker, Wednesday)
WON 2-1 (Salsify Friday)
WON 9-4 (Kaylif Aramis Saturday)
WON 11-10 (Upswing Sunday)
WON 15-8 (Spillway yesterday)
SWEET-16 ‘EARLY BIRDS’ FOR THE FLAT: The 2013 Flat season starts at Doncaster on Friday with the Lincoln Handicap the following day. Here are Daqman’s 16 starter horses to follow, early birds likely to be primed for Spring targets.
Early-bird bets can bring you a good start to the Flat season. Firstly, you are looking for horses which win – or try to – on their reappearance, ready to score when fresh.
It’s pretty obvious that their trainer will know of this win-first-time trait and use it to his advantage against horses which need a run or two, or whose trainers don’t get them cherry-ripe at home.
Apart from those that don’t need much getting ready, another type will win you money, too. They are what I call the Horses With Nowhere To Go.
They are the in-between horses, on the edge of Group ability, but too high in the weights for a handicap in a class they could win.
The trainer has just one throw of the dice: he must run that horse fit when others in the conditions races are not ready. The animal may not be all that well in but fitness will give him a prize which he can’t win later on.
I wish I could name them now but – though I’m guessing at one or two in this column today- we won’t know about such training plans until the horses reappear.
ACCESSION A winner first time out last season for handicap shrewdie Cllive Cox, who has had just one runner, one winner, in the last fortnight. Lincoln outsider.
ALDWICK BAY A Richard Hannon horse who scored on soft ground on his first run back last season. The one for the Doncaster Shield if it doesn’t dry up.
ARTHURS SECRET Highly regarded by the John Quinn outfit, and a winner first time last season. One to keep an eye on in the market at Doncaster on Friday.
CAPTAIN BERTIE I’ve made no secret that he is my Lincoln Handicap hope. This column has a bet on him charged to the account at 16-1 with Ladbrokes in Grand National doubles with Seabass and Cappa Bleu.
Captain Bertie’s first-run-back form figures of 324 seem promising if not exciting but that ‘4’ was at the Lincoln meeting last March when he was continually baulked trying to get through in the Spring Mile and was beaten, fourth, by around two lengths.
The Racing Post website reports: ‘Met every bit of trouble going between the 3f and 2f poles as weakening rivals fell back into his lap. He soon faced an impossible task.’
COLOMBIAN This is one I’m guessing might fall into that second category of a Horse With Nowhere To Go. He’s already got good first-run-back form of 331 over three seasons.
He won a Group 3 first time at the Sandown Esher Cup meeting last April. Though that was the Azamour entire’s sole success, he continued to go well at Group level, taking in Royal Ascot, the Arlington Million and the Prix Dollar at the Arc meeting.
I should think it almost a foregone conclusion that he will be seen trying to win an early Group 3, maybe a repeat attempt at the Gordon Richards Stakes.
GAUL WOOD First-time winner last season. I’m hoping he goes to the May meeting at Chester, where he was a very unlucky loser last season.
HOARDING Had to go right round the field in the Lingfield Spring Cup on Saturday (third). A winner twice last year for John Gosden, and narrowly beaten at Doncaster.
LORD CLYDE By a smart and precocious sire who was never out of the first three when running after break. This two-year-old has shown up in home gallops.
MAYSON He usually needs a run, making no mistake second time. His form in the two seasons when he’s started before Royal Ascot is 21, then 31.
He was third at the Lincoln meeting in the Cammidge, then won the Abernant and Palace House. This is a sprinter of the highest calibre – went on to take the July Cup – but who is particularly lethal in the Spring.
NEW PEARL A winner first time out last season, the grey Acclamation colt failed to score again but was seen at the big meetings: Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and the York Ebor carnival. A sure-fire one for a first-time target in the able hands of David Barron.
PEARL SECRET A winner first time starting out late on in his two-year-old days and again last Spring as a three-year-old at Doncaster, eventually completing a four-timer in a Sandown Listed.
This sprinter is also with David Barron, a skilled trainer of speed horses, and the Compton Place colt’s ability to be fit early and love of cut in the ground will not have been lost on the Yorkshire handler.
REWARDED Back-to-back wins with cut in the ground last Spring, he was overfaced in Group company after. Finished the season well down the field in the Cambridgeshire. A forgotten horse by now I hope, which makes him of interest as an early bird at a price.
TAWTHEEQ First-season full-brother to a first-time Doncaster winner, by the same sire as the flying Equiano, and from a yard that likes to chalk up a hatful of winners in the Spring.
TRAIL BLAZE Kevin Ryan’s four-year-old won his first two races last year with some cut in the ground, and the stable is renowned for being an early starter.
WAR POET Another winner at the opening Doncaster meeting last year, and had scored in May the season before.
Subsequently beaten only three lengths in the Old Newton Cup, he tried hurdling just the once without success: he didn’t enjoy jumping, said trainer David O’Meara who will again have him ready for the start of the Flat.
YELLOW ROSEBUD Finally one for the Irish: the likely winner of the Gladness Stakes on Grand National day. Has won first time out in both season’s racing and a solid Group-3 contender.
TODAY Talking of early birds, Wolverhampton had the busy morning markets, strongly recommending Sibaya (2.10) and Goldstorm (3.40), both very firm favourites, but with Powerful Pierre (2.40) and Paddy Partridge (3.10) the unexpected springers.
Frustrated with his twice being hampered over 6f, Powerful Pierre has been stepped up to 7f. He may now need the extra furlong but it hasn’t worked in the last two years, with his 7f form-figures 03000000.
Paper forecast 10-1, Paddy Partridge (5.0 on BETDAQ this morning) was a leg of Michael Owen’s first double as an owner when he scored at Uttoxeter in 2010, and Paddy recaptured that form with back-to-back hurdles wins last summer.
It’s nearly three years since we’ve seen him on the Flat: he was no great shakes in those days, but lines up today 63lb lower than his hurdles rating.
Even on his poor Flat form of 2010, Paddy Partridge is joint top-rated for today’s race by the Racing Post, and is still fair value as I write at around 5.0 (he was 3-1 and 7-2 with bookmakers).
Southwell is quiet and uninteresting; Exeter small fields and poor value. So my second-best bet is back-to-form All The Winds (4.40), also at Wolverhampton.
If I had to pick an Exeter team that might do well, it would be the Tizzards, still no doubt on a high after their Cheltenham double with Golden Chieftain and Cue Card. Buckhorn Tom (2.30), at 4.9 this morning, could be carried along on the crest of their wave.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 5pts win BUCKHORN TOM (2.30 Exeter)
BET 5pts win (nap) PADDY PARTRIDGE (3.10 Wolverhampton)
BET 5pts win ALL THE WINDS (4.40 Wolverhampton)
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