DAQMAN’S 12-1 STEWARDS’ CUP WINNER WAS 17.0 ON BETDAQ: Daqman’s Saturday selections included Rex Imperator (WON 12-1) at 17.0 on Betdaq in the Stewards Cup on the final day at Goodwood.
CLOUD COVER FOR YOUR EUROPEAN BETS: It’s a European day’s racing with the German Oaks challenge of Secret Gesture and the Deauville attack by Lethal Force which Daqman fears may come under a cloud, Moonlight Cloud.
2.08 Deauville (Prix Maurice De Gheest) Lethal Force and Gale Force Ten bid to follow previous English and Irish winners this century for Richard Hannon (Bold Edge 2000), Aidan O’Brien (King Charlemagne 2001), John Gosden (May Ball 2002), Tim Easterby (Somnus 2004), William Haggas (King’s Apostle 2009) and David Nicholls (Regal Parade 2010).
French and Irish Guineas placed Gale Force Ten, blinkered for the first time, didn’t appear to have the gears, dropped back to sprinting in the July Cup after winning the Jersey Stakes (7f).
Today’s Deauville trip is half a furlong further on an easier surface but it’s hard to see this Force catching the Lethal Force of Clive Cox’s four-year-old who won that July Cup in tremendous style.
Gordon Lord Byron is also playing catch-up. He was nearly five lengths off Lethal Force at the finish of the Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot.
But, powerfully as he might have won both races, Lethal Force was landing a lung-busting double when he followed up in the July Cup and, as we have seen with Sky Lantern’s last two starts, it’s never easy to hold your form at the highest level.
Victory today would put the Dark Angel grey in the same league as Lochsong and Dayjur, as a once-in-20-years multiple Group-1 sprinter.
And Moonlight Cloud – just the one race this season – will be a tough nut to crack, as one who’s already got her three Group 1s. She’s won this race for the last two years and isn’t going to give up the trophy without a fight under Thierry Janet.
In her first Maurice De Gheest in 2011, she beat that year’s Diamond Jubilee winner, Society Rock, a massive four lengths, and Society Rock has finished within two lengths of Lethal Force this season in both Diamond Jubilee and July Cup.
Last year’s Diamond Jubilee also boosted Moonlight Cloud’s CV. She was beaten only a head by Black Caviar, world horse of the year had Frankel not been around.
Moonlight Cloud can be mentioned in the same breath as Frankel in that she beat Farrh at Longchamp over a mile after that one had twice run second to Frankel, and she ran a close fourth to Excelebration at Deauville last August, also over a mile. He famously was runner-up to Frankel five times.
Meanwhile, Lethal Force was also seen in France last backend but his fast start on heavy ground in the 7f Prix De La Foret at Longchamp meant he was never going to get home in the mud, and he has won a Group 2 over 7f on a sound surface.
DAQMAN’S VERDICT: Today’s top-class clash of two very fast animals that each has that vital stamina for a finish has the makings of yet another ‘match made in heaven’ that we are so getting used to week on week in the showpiece races.
I think the 3lb (that’s a length or more) that Lethal Force gives to Moonlight Cloud on her home ground and easy surface gives the mare an edge.
2.40 Deauville (Prix De Reux) The Brits have won this race only once (Peter Chapple-Hyam with Dark Moondancer 1998) and Lady Cecil goes for the Group-3 scalp with a handicapper, First Mohican, facing the mighty posse of Andre Fabre, who’s won it 10 times, notably with Swain (1995).
Six of his 10 winners were three-year-olds, like Au Revoir and Montclair. Au Revoir, a Listed winner, was a promising fifth in the Grand Prix De Paris behind Arc hopeful and stable companion Flintshire.
But first jockey Maxime Guyon seems to prefer Montclair, who is making a comeback here after flopping in a Longchamp Listed in May.
German Derby runner-up Tres Blue got a bit closer to Flintshire when third in the Prix Du Lys than did Au Revoir in the Grand Prix for a yard that’s had four winners at Deauville in the last 10 days.
DAQMAN’S VERDICT: First Mohican, who will enjoy today’s ground, on the easy side of good, tries to step up from handicaps, with the second and third from his York Dante Meeting win (1m 2f class 2) having both failed even to reach a place since.
Tres Blue has the edge on form and Montclair may be best of the Fabre runners, if the jockey bookings are any guide.
3.05 Chester (Queensferry Stakes) Though the winner came from the widest berth of the field in 9 last season, the results by stall for the six years before that were 4, 1, 2, 4, 1 and 2 and, with 12 runners today, it will be hard to get across or wait on the leaders from a high draw.
Since those in stalls 1 (Perfect Blossom), 3 (Sylvia Pankhurst) and 4 (Intransigent) are class 3 and 4 handicap performers, the Listed and conditions race winner Ballista – twice successful on the course – is an absolute standout.
The form of Intibaah (through Ninjago) and Khubala (via Tropics) held up well in the big sprint at Goodwood yesterday, but they have their work cut out to maneouvre from stalls 7 and 8. Soul comes into it if it rains.
DAQMAN’S VERDICT: Ballista has the lucky break in the two stall compared with Soul (stall 12 and needs rain), so Khubala, thereabouts in two big handicap sprints, may be the bigger threat unless there’s a downpour.
3.50 Newbury (Chalice Stakes) Three-year-olds are 6-4 up in the decade but Songbird is from Lady Cecil’s stable that whupped the Classic generation at Goodwood when Wild Coco slammed Ribblesdale third, Elik, in the Lillie Langtry.
Songbird – likewise Seal of Approval and Kikonga – have to make the big leap from handicap company but those in the field already seen in the pattern haven’t covered themselves in glory.
Hughie Morrison’s Dalakhani filly, Spicy Dal, did best of them, second in a Newbury Listed when the Newmarket Pretty Polly runner-up to Talent was third.
DAQMAN’S VERDICT: I’ll put Songbird in my doubles but Spicy Dal is big offers at 11.0 on BETDAQ this morning.
4.05 Dusseldorf (German Oaks) Secret Gesture, who swerved the fast ground at Goodwood (Sussex Stakes), goes well fresh and is having her first race since runner up to stablemate Talent in the Epsom Oaks.
Secret Gesture had always worked better at home than Talent and she needs to be better to win this today, with the Epsom form downgraded by everything behind them: The Lark, Moth, Liber Nauticus, Miss You Too, Banoffee, Gertrude Versed.
You wouldn’t want to know any of them at Dusseldorf today (Miss You Too runs), and Talent herself flopped – last of seven – in the Irish Oaks.
The one to be on seems to be the Motivator filly Daytona Bay, convincing winner of the key test for today at Hamburg last month, though the others in the frame, Quilita, Ars Nova and Wild Silva (now ridden by Freddie Tylicki), are back to fight another day.
Andrea Atzeni rode Ars Nova to win the Oaks Trial at Hoppegarten and renews the partnership after her third to Daytona Bay in Hamburg.
Italian ace Cristian Demuro switches from Ars Nova to the fifth home at Hamburg, Lady Liberty, trained by Andreas Lowe, who has won this Oaks twice before.
Peter Schiergen, who has won it three times, saddles Quilita, who split Daytona Bay and Ars Nova in Hamburg, and she will be ridden by Andrasch Starke, this German Oaks winner five times.
French best Orion Love had The Lark more than four lengths back when third in a Group 2 at Saint-cloud and must go close under a local jockey.
Henri-Alex Pantall has plumped for the Dusseldorf experience of German champion Andreas Suborics (won this in 2004) to do the steering in preference to her usual home rider, Fabrice Veron, even though the Pantall-Veron combo has an excellent strike rate in German black-type races and won the Cologne 2,000 Guineas.
DAQMAN’S VERDICT: The Epsom Oaks has been such a flop all down the line that Secret Gesture has to be a lay.
In any case, if collateral form through The Lark can be believed, Orion Love has the better chance. The lightly-raced home hope, Daytona Bay, is the big danger.
DAQMAN’S BETS:
selections are to win 20 points, except Daq Multiples.
BET 11.5pts win MOONLIGHT CLOUD and 4.6pts win (stakes saver) LETHAL FORCE (2.08 Deauville)
BET 7.6pts win TRES BLUE and 3.4pts win MONTCLAIR (2.40 Deauville)
BET 12pts win BALLISTA and 3.8pts win KHUBALA (3.05 Chester)
BET 2pts win and place SPICY DAL (3.50 Newbury)
LAY 10pts SECRET GESTURE and BET 4.4pts win DAYTONA BAY and 3.4pts win ORION LOVE (4.05 Dusseldorf)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 10pts win on each SONGBIRD (3.50 Newbury), EVANGELIST (4.45 Chester), SADDAQA (nap, 5.25 Newbury) plus 3 x 5pt win doubles and a 2pts win treble the three.
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