DAQMAN 15-7 AHEAD OF PRICEWISE: Daqman has landed two winners a day at Chester, plus a one-two in the opener yesterday and a 25-1 dark-horse place return. He goes 15-7 in front of Pricewise for value.
Daqman Chester Day 2
WON 3-1 NYMPHADORA (Kings Lynn 2nd 5-2 same race)
WON 16-5 SAN ANTONIO
WON (2nd 25-1) DARK PINE (win and place)
Daqman Chester Day 1
WON 8-11 SAVETHELASTDANCE (supernap)
WON 9-4 ZIGGY’S PHOENIX
FORTUNE COOKIES Update: Chaldean runs St James Palace Stakes, June 20
TODAY: The Chester Cup ‘relentless galloper’
BOARDMAN GETS THE BREAK
⭕ 1.30 Chester (7.5f handicap) Results by stall (10 years): 2, 1, 5, 4, 8, 1, 1, 3, 2. No winning favourite since 2014.
Wobwobwob, from the one stall, has scored just the once in two years (1-17), and Al Rufaa (2) has failed a dozen times, since a firm-ground double in the summer of 2020.
Boardman (4) has won on heavy ground; scored twice last May including here at Chester; rated just 2lb higher than when he won at the second Chester May meeting last year.
Boardman (BETDAQ 4.4 this morning) was held up out of stall 8 in this that day but has the best of the draw today, four off the rail. The winner, Red Mirage is 2lb better with Revich who was third.
They were side by side in stalls 1 and 2 last year, when Red Mirage raced freely (will find that difficult from gate 10 now) and Revich was held up and hampered; his running style also makes him vulnerable again today out of gate 6.
Ffion won twice here last year but in class 4 and has to contend with stall 12. Gweedore has raised his game since last summer but is high in the handicap now (gate 8). So, too, CD winner, Percys Lad (13).
SCHOLARSHIP TO PASS EXAMS
⭕ 1.50 Ascot Clive Cox rates Scholarship (BETDAQ 2.8) a Royal Ascot sort so he must pass his exams in this class-2 handicap, with his nearest rival, Racingbreaks Ryder, a class-3 winner who pulls hard and could set it up for him.
Scholarship is Tom Marquand’s first ride after a ‘double double’ at Chester yesterday; two winners on the day and back–to–back Ormondes on Hamish.
Hamish needs this ground and, with no guarantee it will be soft for the Hardwicke, might be seen again in the Yorkshire Cup next week.
⭕ 4.10 Ascot For me, Ryder’s stable has a better chance with Orazio, another aimed at Royal Ascot for the Wokingham. William Buick is here instead of at Chester. BETDAQ value 3.5
ANOTHER REPEAT WIN?
⭕ 2.05 Chester (1m 2.5f handicap) Results by stall: 11, 3, 3, 10, 1, 4, 1, 9, 5.
Baryshnikov is another going for a repeat today: stall 5 last year, stall 7 this.
At Chester since 2020, his course form is 1141, and he’s dropped to last year’s winning mark, when Lord Protector was sixth.
Pride Of America (stall 4) won over CD at the meeting but is up 19lb, while Cambridgeshire fifth, Savvy Victory, from the one stall, has been running well against tough opposition but that’s put his mark on the highest ever.
Groundbreaker is tongue-tied first time and Oisin Murphy is riding like a demon, but a controlled version, and he’s already on 56 strikes for the year.
IT ALL POINTS TO LONSDALE
⭕ 2.40 Chester (Huxley Stakes) Aidan O’Brien has won this twice in the last six seasons, and Point Lonsdale has already scored this season.
He won a Group 3 on heavy at the Curragh, with the form franked next time by the runner-up in a Group 2.
The worry does not come from the opposition but from the bounce factor, his having been absent 351 days before that seasonal-debut win.
What’s wrong with the opposition? Well, Mujtaba (beaten favourite in both Lincoln and Cambridgeshire) is actually rated a pound higher but is a handicapper never before asked to step out of his comfort zone, now hiked to Group 2. His last race runner–up has been out of the frame since.
Foxes Tales has won one rung below today’s level. Back to form in a Kempton Listed but has never put two wins together before.
Poker Face is lightly raced and his second to 113-rated Ottoman Fleet in the Earl of Sefton gives him every chance.
Royal Champion (all wins on good ground) seems Listed level at best, and Lafayette was more than eight lengths at the Curragh behind Point Lonsdale, who was 2.15 on Betdaq Betting Exchange this morning.
METIER RELENTLESS GALLOPER
⭕ 3.15 Chester (Chester Cup) Don’t take my word for it that Falcon Eight may have too much to do off 9st 12lb to complete the double two years on. Trainer Dermot Weld claims the handicapper ‘has been harsh.’
Falcon Eight, who won under 9st 10lb in 2021 for Frankie Dettori (The Grand Visir second), now has Ryan Moore in the pilot’s position.
Weld was cautious that day, too, reckoning the rain rather than the rating might be his downfall. But he won on good-to-soft ground and would subsequently score at the Curragh on soft-heavy.
In fact, he was only fifth last year – outpaced on good ground – in a strong contest which saw Coltrane beaten a neck, just in front of Rajinsky, who went on to win the Cesarewitch Trial and recently, beat Trueshan over shorter.
Dominic Ffrench Davies, who’s already had a winner at Chester this week, is keen on Call My Bluff (stall 2), who has Chester form of 132, beaten a head in a similar autumn cup race here over the CD, giving 6lb to the winner.
That winner was Emiyn, now 7lb worse off, and coming out of the one stall this afternoon.
Harry Fry describes Metier, winner of the November Handicap (1m 4f heavy) but a 2m hurdles winner up to Grade 1, as ‘a relentless galloper’.
The same might be said of Calling The Wind, the Goodwood Handicap winner (2m 4f plus), third in both a Cesarewitch and the Queen Alexandra Stakes.
Second and fourth in last year’s Cesarewitch were Vino Victrix and Zoffee, both complaining they were short of room but, as far as today goes, both showing a preference for top of the ground.
BETDAQ value 6.9 Calling The Wind, 7.7 Metier
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.30 Chester (win 10)
BET 3pts win BOARDMAN
1.50 Ascot (win 10)
BET 5.5pts win SCHOLARSHIP
2.40 Chester (win 15 nap)
BET 12pts win POINT LONSDALE
3.15 Chester (win 30 each)
BET 5pts win CALLING THE WIND
BET 4.75pts win METIER
4.10 Ascot (win 10)
BET 4pts win ORAZIO
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