WASH-OUT BUT THE OLD FOX DAQMAN BAGS A LAY: Rain made the Daqman v Pricewise contest a 0-0 wash-out yesterday with big races containing winners at 40-1 and 100-1. Better to be laying the favourite! And Daqman got that one right, opposing 11-8 (SP) Fox Vardy at York. His lays record is now four out of five since the resumption:
WON unplaced 15-8 STONE MASON (favourite)
WON unplaced 11-4 SWINDLER (favourite)
WON 3rd 5-6 PINATUBO (favourite)
WON 3rd 11-8 FOX VARDY (favourite)
FRENCH JOCKEY ACE POISED ON 99 AT NEWMARKET: Daqman reserves his close analysis for Market Rasen today, with Newmarket depleted by the rain. Yet there are strong performers at this July Meeting, no lesser one than French jockey ace Pierre-Charles Boudot, who is on 99 winners for the year!
DANDALLA FORTUNE COOKIE BANKER
⭕ 1.50 Newmarket Enough non-runners on the card to create another race! Breanski (BETDAQ 8.0) has won a class higher than this and likes soft ground.
⭕ 2.25 Newmarket (Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes) I put up Albany winner, Dandalla, as a Fortune Cookie, and she’s already had some luck, getting the rain, and will run for the list at 2.3 on BETDAQ this morning but with a likely challenger in the market.
Ralph Beckett, usually up to Classic level with his fillies, has struggled to find one this season, but Time Scale quickly reached Listed status. Just a question of the ground.
⭕ 3.00 Newmarket Themaxwecan (BETDAQ 8.5) was in the firing line at the finish in last year’s Queens Vase on the soft. He’s had two runs back and Mark Johnston’s yard was thunderous yesterday with three winners out of six.
⭕ 3.35 and 4.10 Newmarket (Falmouth Stakes) I have been banging on about the supreme jockeyship of Pierre-Charles Boudoit and we are going to see him here at Newbury today on Grand Rock (3.35) at 9.1 on BETDAQ this morning, and facing Frankie Dettori in this one.
Boudot rode this morning’s 4.5 offer One Master to win the Foret on soft after James Doyle was pipped a neck in this Falmouth on good to firm. Terebellum was runner-up in the Queen Anne and this is surely race of the day anywhere.
HIGHLY SUITED TO THE RASEN TRACK
⭕ 2.05 Market Rasen (Summer Hurdle) Likely to be soft(ish) with more rain about, and usually goes to younger horses on the way up (only one winner older than six in nine seasons).
But it’s a school of old boys this time around with two seven-year-olds at the front of the market hard to oppose, because their stables have been flying.
Alan King’s CD winner Dino Velvet looks poised to go well after a prep nine days ago, while Emma Lavelle, who is currently 4-7, rates Highly Prized highly!
Highly Prized was a dual winner in the autumn, thought worth a tilt at a big Graded Hurdle in February, when he led for much of the way. His style looks ideal for the merry-go-round Rasen track but he doesn’t want it too soft. I took 5.3 on BETDAQ.
Best of two for Olly Murphy (6-17) may be Valentino Dancer, fifth last year when only four. Could respond to first-time cheekpieces. Has won on good to soft twice.
ON A PLATE FOR 10.0 BET POTTERMAN
⭕ 2.40 Market Rasen (Summer Plate) The top yards don’t like to see this Grade 3 slip from their grasp. The usual suspects – Henderson, Nicholls, Twiston-Davies, Newland, O’Neill, Skelton, Pipe – have all shared in it.
Leading trainer in the race with six hits is Peter Bowen. Though his 2018 winner of this, More Buck’s, is 10 years old now, he’ll surely be having a go, down in the weights.
Paul Nicholls will want to make more of Lough Derg Spirit than did Nicky Henderson, and wind surgery may open him up to his old form.
How about this for a prep race? The ultra-consistent Adrrastos last ran in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot three weeks ago, while Alan King asks Fidux to step up from novice class!
Royal Village was runner-up in this race a year ago but trainer Ian Williams has gone 37 runners and 211 days without a Jumps win, and his losing Flat sequence is 43.
San Benedeto has often kept quality company but has won only once in his last 19 starts. Hard to believe in.
Bags Groove was an early plunge horse for this. Consistent novice who won on a similar track at Wincanton and another who could benefit from wind surgery, though it didn’t seem to do much for Solomon Grey who has produced little or nothing in the last year.
One answer to this puzzle may be BETDAQ 10.0 offer, Potterman, another for Alan King. Seven consecutive races as favourite up to last September, winning four times. We can’t back Potterman without a pound on 16.0 stablemate Fidux.
WHY TESSERACT HAS OBVIOUS CLAIM
⭕ 7.25 Kilbeggan (Midlands National) I can never resist a National! Like many of them, a weight above 10st 12lb is hardly ever carried to victory (here it’s 6-1 against). I’ll back two, both around 10.0.
Last year’s runner-up, Tesseract, has left Joseph O’Brien since, and it will be interesting to see what Aidan Howard can do with him here, claiming off him.
Or you could take a chance on Megalomaniac and Rachael Blackmore for Henry de Bromhead, who is in a fair seam of fine.
They backed him to win at Galway at last year’s festival, so this seems an alternative, though I’d like to see him settle better for this new trip.
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.50 Newmarket (win 10)
BET 1.5pts win BREANKSI
2.05 Market Rasen (win 20)
BET 4.5pts win (nap) HIGHLY PRIZED
2.25 Newmarket
FORTUNE COOKIE
BET 20pts win DANDALLA
2.40 Market Rasen (win 50, win 20)
BULL’S-EYE BET: 5pts win POTTERMAN
BET 1.25pts win FIDUX
3.00 Newmarket (win 50)
BULL’S-EYE BET 6.5pts win THEMAXWECAN
3.35 Newmarket (win 20)
BET 2.5pts win GRAND ROCK
4.05 Newmarket (win 10)
BET 2.75pts win ONE MASTER
7.25 Kilbeggan (win 20)
BET 2pts win MEGALOMANIAC
BET 2pts win TESSERACT
Did you know that as well as checking the realtime prices on BETDAQ below – you can also log into your account and place your bets directly into BETDAQ from BETDAQ TIPS.
