IT COULD BE BETDAQ THE KINGMAKER: Willie Mullins cut back the deficit on Gordon Elliott in the Irish trainers’ title race yesterday and gives himself five chances of winning the BETDAQ Champion Hurdle. He’s €126,830 behind but the winner could bring in €147,500. The first five home lands €232,500.
ABC HOW THE MULLINS HORSES RUN: Can he do it? Here’s the Daqman ABC guide to the BETDAQ Champion Hurdle, plotting horse by horse their ticks in the boxes of winning statistics. The Willie Mullins runners are marked with a ‘C’.
50-1 AWARDS FOR SUPER ONE-TWO: Daqman landed a 7-1 Punchestown winner, Minella Awards against Pricewise in their value challenge, bringing the total to 9-4 in his favour. He also named the second horse home in that race for a 50-1 Ladbrokes forecast. His winners after three days of the festival:
Tuesday
WON 5-2 Fox Norton (nap)
WON 13-8 Disko
WON 6-4 Enniskillen
Wednesday
WON 11-10 Galapiat
WON 9-10 Sizing John (Jumps banker)
WON 4-6 Cracksman (Flat banker and day’s nap)
Thursday
WON 7-1 Minella Awards (from 10.0 on BETDAQ)
2ND 7-1 No Comment (paid near 50-1 forecast)
WON 11-10 Historic Event (Flat banker)
MOUCHOIR FOR BETDAQ CHAMPION
5.30 Punchestown (BETDAQ Champion Hurdle)
Get your hankie out! Wave it for Petit Mouchoir or cry with frustration if you are on Labaik and he misbehaves. He’s visored first time to try to keep his mind on the business in hand, and old-timer Wicklow Brave now has blinkers.
The Brave is one of five runners for Willie Mullins, with only the wayward Labaik a likely defence for Gordon Elliott.
Elliott also runs Tombstone but he’s a stone behind Arctic Fire and My Tent Or Yours who are, somewhat surprisingly, top rated over Petit Mouchoir with Vroum Vroum Mag 10lb behind them.
Here are the five major stats which seem relevant to winners of the past and how they relate to each horse by this ABC key:
A Aged 5, 6 or 7 or previous winner (9/9)
B 154 minimum rating (9/9)
C Trained Willie Mullins (6/7)
D Already a Grade 1 winner (9/10)
E Finished in the first three last time out (10/10)
ABDE Petit Mouchoir
Moved by Gigginstown from Gordon Elliott to Willie Mullins but has been most successful since a second switch to Henry de Bromhead, beating Nichols Canyon, then Footpad, both at Leopardstown.
Just failed to last up the Cheltenham hill, third in the Champion Hurdle, with My Tent Or Yours second; Wicklow Brave and Brain Power well in rear. Won his bumper at this meeting.
ABD Identity Thief
Another Gigginstown. Won the 2015 Fighting Fifth and back-to-back wins here at Punchestown in the autumn. No form since and ran a stinker in the Aintree Hurdle. Dropped back in trip now.
ABD Labaik
Very useful (Supreme Novice Hurdle winner at Cheltenham) when he condescends to race. At first refused to start, then ‘raced’ in his own time, and tailed off in the Punchestown Champion Novice Hurdle on Tuesday
AB Brain Power
Looked the part and shot up 13lb after impressive handicap (Grade 3) win at Ascot in December but we now know that he was beating ‘nothing’, and he ran freely in the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle., finishing well back.
ACDE Vroum Vroum Mag
Despite a sequence of 12 wins from 14, incl;uding the Mares Hurdle at Cheltenham and this race last year, the mare doesn’t have the rating for this now, after being dropped 2lb for her failure to defend the mares’ crown last month, when suffering a second defeat by Apple’s Jade.
AC Ivan Grozny
Grade 2 at best (Istabraq Hurdle, Tipperary, October), completing hat-trick in a hood in second half of last year. Tongue strap tried at Naas in January (left off this time) and not seen since.
AE Tombstone
Best form in winning Grade-3 Red Mills Trial at Gowran Park in February, which made him favourite for the Coral Cup at Cheltenham but the 2016 fourth in the Supreme Novice Hurdle was never travelling (lost a shoe).
A Rashaan
Beat Apple’s Jade and Petit Mouchoir in a Grade 2 at Down Royal in November but struggled in the Red Mills Trial and again at Aintree
BCDE Arctic Fire
A long-time nearly horse, placed behind Faugheen (three times including in this race) and Hurricane Fly until finally bagging a Grade 1 (the Hattons Grace) in November, 2015. Only third run since when won the County Hurdle on last day after a long absence (bounce factor a worry).
BC Wicklow Brave
Nearly horse on the Flat, placed in several big races, until beating Order Of St George in small field for the Irish St Leger in September. Last success over Jumps was the County Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2015. Blinkered first time after reluctant to start in Cheltenham Champion Hurdle.
BDE My Tent Or Yours
Third in this last year and back to a similar rating after resurgent second to Buveur d’Air in both the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle and Aintree Hurdle, fabulous form for a 10-year-old. Owned J P McManus, who had four winners and two seconds yesterday.
CDE Diakali
Best form in 2014: fourth in the County Hurdle and third in the La Barka at Auteuil. Won a Grade 3 at Tipperary in the summer and back to form at Fairyhouse on the last day. Was due to run in a handicap at this festival but has been switched to the BETDAQ Champion Hurdle.
FRANKEL DOUBLE: CUP AND TRIAL
1.50 Sandown (Esher Cup) First Up was impressive at Kempton in September, but the form the same month of the Frankel colt Atty Persse (named after the champion trainer of 1930) was franked almost immediately, and he’s the only one with a Group-1 entry.
2.20 Sandown (Gordon Richards Stakes) Stall 1 goes for a hat-trick in the shape of the top-rated My Dream Boat, last year’s winner of this who went on to beat Found on soft at Ascot.
But Sir Michael Stoute has a potential improver lurking (Ulysees), who – like Deauville and Royal Artilolery – will better enjoy the fast ground. Belmont Derby winner Deauville is in my Early Bird list, fit from Meydan.
2.50 Sandown (Classic Trial) Three Frankels – Monarchs Glen, stablemate Cunco and the grey Frankuus – dominate this trial, and I take Monarchs Glen to give John Gosden his eighth win in the race.
3.30 Sandown (Mile) Horses with a Group-2 penalty go for a hat-trickvia Cougar Mountain, and Kool Kompany is expected to bounce back to his Craven Stakes form of 2015.
But my man in the long grass at Newmarket insists that Tashweeq is big value at 7.6 on BETDAQ this morning, and he continues our siding with last year’s Classic generation as four-year-olds this year. They’ve done superbly well so far.
ANOTHER OSCAR FOR TIZZARD
4.20 Punchestown Willie Mullins (Arbre De Vie) has won this five times since 2007 and, as at Punchestown this week, his chief rival has been Jessican Harrington (back to back wins 2013-14), who saddles Woodland Opera.
Diamond King does well on a sound surface but can make hair-raising blunders and only one horse of his age has won this in the decade.
Balko Des Flos ran away from Arbre De Vie at Fairyhouse in January and has run well against Disko. Tasty 8.4 on BETDAQ.
6.05 Punchestown (Champion Novice Hurdle) Five-year-olds have a 70% record, and Willie Mullins has won four times since 2009
But the best record is held by the favourite: currently four in a row and six out of eight.
The jolly is likely to be Finian’s Oscar, trained Colin Tizzard and ridden Robbie Power, a combo which has already bagged two big prizes at the meeting with Fox Norton and Sizing Granite.
Finians Oscar, forced to miss Cheltenham with a minor setback, made up for it at Aintree, winning as he liked.
Death Duty took a winning sequence of four (the form has not worked out particualry well) to Cheltenhamwwhere he unseaterd when well beaten in the Albert Bartlett.
Let’s Dance’s winning sequence was also four when she topped it at Cheltenham to win the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle from Barra.
Though she was beaten in the Mares Novice Hurdle Final at Fairyhouse, she confirmed the form with Barra (third) to within a couple of pounds.
Finian’s Oscar’s swerving Cheltenham could be the extra edge here, with less chance of his being jaded by too many festivals or too recent a race.
6.40 Punchestown (Champion Hunters Chase) On The Fringe attempts a four-timer which would give him no fewer than six wins in this contest,
He’s still only 12, which ids not old for a race like this unless we can find a ‘hidden horse’ youngster, such as On The Fringe himself was when winning it age five in 2010.
Monsieur Gibraltar has been seen only once on a ‘real’ racecourse but could be the rock that’s a hard place for On the Fringe at half his age: 7.4 on BETDAQ
DAQMAN BETS AND BETDAQ CHAMPION DAY YANKEE
BET 7.5pts win ATTY PERSSE (1.50 Sandown)
BET 5pts win DEAUVILLE (2.20 Sandown)
BANKER (Flat): 20pts win (nap) MONARCHS GLEN (2.55 Sandown)
BET 3pts win and place TASHWEEQ (3.30 Sandown)
BET 2.75pts win and place BALKO DES FLOS (4.20 Punchestown)
BANKER (Jumps): 20pts win PETIT MOUCHOIR (5.30 Punchestown)
BET 10pts win FINIAN’S OSCAR (6.05 Punchestown)
BET 3pts win and place MONSIEUR GIBRALTAR, and 2.5pts win (stakes saver) ON THE FRINGE (6.40 Punchestown)
BETDAQ CHAMPION DAY YANKEE (Daq Multiples): Atty Persse (1.50 Sandown), Monarchs Glen (2.55 Sandown), Finians Oscar (6.05 Punchestown), Petit Mouchoir (5.30 Punchestown)
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