DOUBLE OF BANKERS MAKES FIVE: Daqman yesterday made it five consecutive winning bankers since Sunday with a double of maximum-stakes bets yesterday, through Stars Over The Sea at Ludlow and Champagne Fever at Clonmel.
TOTAL SEQUENCE IS 18 OUT OF 23: That takes his score in the current sequence of successful bankers to 18 from the last 23. The five since Sunday are:
WON 8-13 Zaidpour (banker)
WON 1-5 El Namoose (banker)
WON 3-10 Tara Point (banker)
WON 8-13 Stars Over The Sea (banker)
WON 8-11 Champagne Fever (banker)
NAPS: FIVE WINNERS ON THE TROT: Stars Over The Sea means that his nap is also on a sequence of five consecutive, via Zaidpour, Shutthefrontdoor (WON 2-1), El Namoose, Tara Point and Stars Over The Sea.
PRICEWISE CHALLENGE IS BACK: Daqman also named Casino Markets (WON 11-4) and Zulu Oscar (WON 30-100) for four winners on the day yesterday. Now he’s back on the attack against Pricewise (1.50 Cheltenham), whom he beat last jumps season and on the Flat.
IT’S A CHAMPAGNE DAY AT CHELTENHAM
1.15 Cheltenham Colin Tizzard expects last year’s winner, Handy Andy, to improve markedly on his Chepstow return a month ago, and he looks a fair bet at 6.2 on BETDAQ this morning.
It’s nearly three years since Charingworth won a race but when he was second to Handy Andy last year, he hadn’t had a prep run and Andy had.
Trouble with Charingworth is that he’s such a bridesmaid (form figures still standing) 32023342. Ditto for Mister Grez (32422), though he ran a good fourth in the Showcase Trophy at Cheltenham just over a year ago.
After a double in this with Swing Bill, David Pipe’s Standing Ovation was losing favourite last year, and Broadway Buffalo has been beaten a total of 57 lengths in two runs back and cheekpieces are now added to the tongue-tie.
Venetia Williams is spraying winning shots round the outfield but Ballyoliver’s penalty opens up his guard. Benbens has been hard to train and he got to the track only four times last season, but always in the first two.
The Nephew is high in the handicap but no doubt stoked up for this because there wasn’t much juice in the ground. Butney Rock needs the surface firm. Both may be scuppered by the overnight rain.
Fruity O’Rooney was once runner-up in the JLT Speciality Chase at the Cheltenham festival but is getting long in the tooth now, 12 years old in a few weeks’ time. Oscar Time, fourth in the Grand National, will be 14.
1.50 Cheltenham It’s hard to carry big weights (no winner with more than 11st 7lb in the decade) in these fast-run two-milers at Cheltenham, when lungs must be filled again for that strength-sapping final hill.
Punters usually get it about right, with no winners in the decade bigger than 9-1 (and only one older than eight, by the way).
At 8.6 the field, 10.5 bar one this morning, early mouse, the BETDAQ orange guaranteed that, whatever won, you would have a good price about it, if you got on early.
Anay Turge (winner), Sew On Target (second, now 2lb better off) and De Faoithesdream (6th) were involved in this race a year ago on good ground. It was Anay Turg’s second Cheltenham success and the grey has also won (three times) on heavy.
But he is nine now, and the Henderson hope, Anquetta, is 10. Anquetta went adrift like a lonely dog on a raft this morning, well over my betting weir for a big stable to 24.0.
Jonjo O’Neill has been using Will Kennedy and Richie McLernon but it’s noticeable that, for his only two winners since Tony McCoy’s absence, Barry Geraghty was on board.
Geraghty rides Festive Affair here, a young horse capable of going well fresh. The 2m 4f was a trip too far at the Cheltenham Festival and he looks live here, at 8.6 as I write.
In-form Venetia Williams drops Shangani back in trip and he was easy to back this morning, but her supposed second string, Last Shot, was even bigger in the market (34.0) at the time of writing.
2.25 Cheltenham (Steel Plate and Sections Novices’ Chase) This race is a kingmaker, with Denman and Imperial Commander going from here to gold at the festival, and subsequent Ryanair, JLT and RSA winners among other recent scorers.
There are three or four close together at the front of the market which, as always, means you’ll get a fair start from BETDAQ, with the orange total probability at 102%.
The trainers are all mothering their fledgling jumpers this morning (‘he’s a good boy at home’) but it’s a tough first steeplechase for Dell ‘Arca and Champagne West.
Champagne stablemate Colour Squadron not only has fencing experience but has been placed in three consecutive Graded chases at Cheltenham. If he’s beaten, we’ll be glad of him as a yardstick, running here instead of tomorrow’s PP Gold Cup, in which he was second last year.
Yet, if he wins, it will be a damper on the form of the race. Are we seriously going to have an eight-year-old stop six of (presumably) the best youngsters in the business?
Colour Squadron has not won a race for nearly three years and, for that reason alone, is worth taking on here. As to the winner, it’s so, so tight on hurdles form: 146 Splash of Ginger, 145 Dell ‘Arca, 143 Champagne West, 141 Urban Hymn.
My view is that we are unlikely to see 5.2 about Champagne West again at this level. He’s expected to go to the top.
3.00 Cheltenham (Neptune Novices’ Hurdle) Black Jack Ketchum (2005) and Massini’s Maguire (2006) both went on to win at the big Cheltenham meeting in March.
This time the stats tell us that Blaklion’s giving weight all round to the fancied horses is a tough, tough task: form figures for horses with 11st 7lb or more in this race in the decade are: 000P03200332P000013202, including four favourites, two at odds on.
It will be interesting to see what the step up in trip does for Parlour Games but he was easy to back this morning, and I’ll try some more ‘shampoo’, with Ruby Walsh travelling over for Champagne Present.
This Presenting (out of a Good Thyne mare) has bags of stamina and will appreciate the change of going after his return in a slow-run good-ground heat at Aintree.
‘BALTHAZAR’ THE CROSS-COUNTRY KING
3.35 Cheltenham (Glenfarclas Cross-Country) Spotthedifference (2004) and Balthazar KJing (2013) – so near and yet so far – both went on to take the cross-country championship in March.
So-near Balthazar King? This column had 39.0 on BETDAQ for the Grand National (2nd 14-1). I followed him through his thickening and growing and through his thin piece of National luck last season, thick and thin.
And, with form of 11111, still standing, deleting that National second, he’s not one to let you down. Three of those wins were at Cheltenham; two of them in cross-countrys.
I have to be pitching here for him again today, laying it on the line, 20 points maximum to be precise. A banker for back-to-back wins.
4.05 Cheltenham This race for youngsters takes some winning, and tough types like Punchestowns, Grands Crus and Double Ross have done it since 2008.
And, as the gardener on the old Fast Show might have put it: This race I am mostly talking about outsiders: 12-1 (twice), 14-1, 16-1 (twice) and 40-1 since 2005.
So, of course, the Henderson (Cup Final) has a big chance; of course, it’s significant that Tony Martin’s over with Ruby Walsh on Cassell’s Rock but not only are favourites hard to land, like fish in a swollen river, but these entries were made for good ground.
The first five down the card have won hurdles only on ‘good.’ How much the rain gets into it, I cannot predict over my cornflakes, but there were already some significant drop-outs.
Down the bottom of the handicap, Morito Du Berlais (8.8) has been transformed (to what extent?) by the famous Ditcheat breathing op, and Cloudy Beach (16.0) is well in here with River Deep on last season’s form, and getting lumps of weight all round for an in-form yard.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 20 points, except the banker)
BET 3.8pts win HANDY ANDY (1.15 Cheltenham)
BET 2.6pts win FESTIVE AFFAIR (1.50 Cheltenham)
BET 4.75pts win CHAMPAGNE WEST (2.25 Cheltenham)
BET 5.2pts win CHAMPAGNE PRESENT (3.00 Cheltenham)
BANKER: BET 20pts win (nap) BALTHAZAR KING (3.35 Cheltenham)
BET 2.5pts win MORITO DU BERLAIS and 1.3pts win CLOUDY BEACH (4.05 Cheltenham)
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