23.0 ‘GOLD’ PUNT IN THE SILVER: Punters are crying out for big handicaps and when we get one they are split two or three ways. But today’s Racing Post ignores the Silver Cambridgeshire at Newmarket this afternoon. So it is that Daqman gives you an extra-in-depth preview and a 23.0 pot-of-gold bet.
DAQMAN BID TO BOOST 78 HITS: So, with the scores Daqman 78, Pricewise 32, the value challenge switches to the 1.55, 2.30 and 3.40 Newmarket this afternoon, with bets from Daqman at 7.0, 6.0 and 5.7.
IN THE HUNT AGAIN AT 10-1: Yesterday’s success gave Daqman a winner on 14 of the last 15 days. It came when he named the one-two Huntlaw (WON 10-1) and Great Order (2nd 7-4) for a 26-1 forecast with Ladbrokes.
GODOLPHIN ARE ON A PROMISING RUN
1.55 Newmarket Wilamina (holds Laugh Aloud but held by Manaboo) was ‘unsuited by good to firm ground’ behind Pirouette and Muffri’Ha at Haydock, and the form seems diminished by Pirouette’s close proximity to class-4 winner Lucy The Painter there and at Sandown.
September Stars also tries to leap from class 4 to a Listed. Molly Dolly has failed to do just that in Ireland but gets her ground here.
The most likely winner is the 6.0 morning BETDAQ offer Promising Run, who won the Rockfel on this card last year. She has twice finished in front of Ashadihan, latterly in a Group 1, and Godolphin (a double yesterday) have laid out their stall at this meeting.
OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING: 5.7
2.30 Newmarket Three-year-olds are 9-1 up over four-year-olds in the decade, and the seven of them get a around a stone from another Godolphin, Beautiful Romance, who beat Journey in the Spring before that one won a Group 3.
But that made it 1-1 between them, Journey having two lengths to spare over Beautiful Romance last backend and she is hot stuff in the market this morning to defy the stats.
But the beautiful romance with the punters this morning was the Galileo filly Beautiful Morning, who could benefit from this step up in trip.
Journey and Beautiful Morning – Chinoiseries and Hestina, too – have all had long holidays and are clearly glass horses. But Beautiful Morning seems to be best of the three-year-olds and most strongly fancied of them in the BETDAQ market: 5.7.
7.0 BET ON MARIA MIGHT BE PAINLESS
3.05 Newmarket (Rockfel Stakes) The Frankel Fair Eva will be odds on to redeem her Lowther defeat after Group-3 success in the Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot in July.
But you can get a better price the place about 8.4 chance Exmouth with THREE chances of a place return to Fair Eva’s having to win.
3.40 Newmarket (Joel Stakes) This is a cracking contest with the 2014 winner, Custom Cut, back to form on the last day, just pipped by Awtaad at Leopardstown. But he prefers some cut in the ground.
The firmish surface today may also be the undoing of French 1,000 Guineas runner-up, Nathra, and three-year-olds hadn’t won this for seven years before Time test last season.
The ground will suit Cougar Mountain but it’s more than a year since he got home first, and has been placed in only two of seven starts since.
Gifted Master and 7f Haydock record-breaker Forge may be short runners for this open-heath mile.
It could fall into the lap of 7.0 offer Amazing Maria, who has failed in a series of Group-1 heats but been freshened up for this Group 2. Maria is my new dentist. I hope one of them is painless today.
SILVER 1-2 FOR BATHOS AND BULLETIN
5.55 Newmarket (Silver Cambridgeshire) Once upon a time, punters could spot the trainer’s subtle art of carefully placing a horse in a handicap.
These days, with a crying need for more handicaps, stables enter a cavalry of horses in what’s available and the authority’s reaction is to split the handicap two or three ways – gold, silver, bronze – so that it’s a lottery even to which ‘division’ you’ll get in!
As we did with the Ayr triple, we can only hope to do some weeding and back the few flowers that are left in the field.
Three-year-olds have finished 111413 in the six years of this Cambridgeshire consolation, and the draw may also be significant.
In five of the six years, the winners have come from stalls 1 to 11, with 50% success for gates 1 and 2 combined, as the outside draw is swung wide or has to fall back and tuck in.
Add those stats together and you Cote d’Azur, Bathos, Absolute Zero and Palmerston. But they’re a motley crew.
Bathos won a class-2 nursery at this meeting last year but has had to resort to class 4 to get another success on the board since. Cote d’Azur has had nine races this season – won four for a different trainer – and you’d hope to find something fresher and on the way up.
Palmerston made good progress in the summer but has faded since and needs to bounce back. Ditto, Absolute Zero, who has failed to progress through the grades.
Daily Bulletin beat King Edward V11 winner Across The Stars last season and has just received a late boost for this. A strong traveler, he tailed Huntlaw at Chelmsford and swept past him to score easily a fortnight ago.
Yesterday Huntlaw, back on turf, held off Great Order to land me a 10-1 Newmarket winner.
If 6.2 BETDAQ favourite Daily Bulletin can also transfer Chelmsford AW form to Newmarket, he could defy a nominal 4lb penalty for that.
We’ve had a winner with 9st 10lb in this race already, and trainer Gosden has won the Cambridgeshire proper with Gm Hopkins off 9st 9lb.
Snag is that Daily Bulletin also has to defy a 16 draw and won’t appeal to many because of his in-and-out form. However, he’s the best of the three-year-olds.
Apart from Michael Appleby’s pair, Palmerston and Mithqaal, he’s giving only 8lb to the best of the others of his age, Bathos, who has been flat out of form. Trainer Appleby is currently on a dismal run of 1-27.
Of the others low drawn, ex-Irish Dawn Mirage is 10lb higher than for his sole English win from eight starts; Muhaafiz is 1-14; stalls 3, 5 and 7 house pensioners, while the form of Freight Train (8) and Craftsmanship (10) is at a lower level.
Dawn Mirage was unlucky to come up against a Listed winner on the last day but is ultra consistent and has Ryan Moore booked.
In the good old, bad old days, the eye at this time of the season would go immediately to Luca Cumani’s Laurence as a hidden horse but the trainer has had a poor season in handicaps, albeit the yard is in good form right now and might have scored earlier in the day with Beautiful Morning.
But, as my second choice, I shall take Bathos (23.0 best BETDAQ offers) to bounce back. He’s a big horse who enjoys the wide open spaces of a galloping track, as he showed in that nursery here a year ago, and Mark Johnston was the trainer of Huntlaw yesterday.
I rate him a 12-1 chance so, keeping my five-point win-50 stake, I’ll try to capture a 110-point pot of gold.
Verdict: 1 Daily Bulletin, 2 Bathos, 3 Cote d’Azur, 4 Dawn Mirage.
Hoofington Post: Because the bookies didn’t offer overnight prices on this Silver Cambridgeshire, there is no Pricewise tipping on the race and no preview of the runners and trainer comments anywhere in the Racing Post!
Two slaves to the advertising, new chairman Richard Segal and Pricewise’s Tom Segal: Are they by any chance related?
DAQMAN’S BETS (each staked to win 30 points, except pot-of-gold target 110)
1.55 Newmarket
BET 6pts win (nap) PROMISING RUN
2.30 Newmarket
BET 6.25pts win BEAUTIFUL MORNING
3.05 Newmarket
BET 4pts win and place EXMOUTH
3.40 Newmarket
BET 5pts win AMAZING MARIA
5.05 Haydock
BET 3.6pts win and place GRAZIE
5.55 Newmarket
POT-OF-GOLD BET: 5pts win and place BATHOS
BET 6pts win (to win 30) DAILY BULLETIN
£25 IN FREE BETS
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.
