NAP AMONG FOUR FROM FOUR: The form book says you can take a risk, claimed Daqman yesterday. It was risk by name but not by nature as it landed his nap by more than five lengths. Daqman had returns from all four races he bet in:
WON 7-4 Sadlers Risk (nap)
WON 6-5 Gmaash
3rd 7-1 Glorious Rocket (from 10.5 BETDAQ, win and place)
3rd 5-1 Mockinbird (from 9.8 on BETDAQ, win and place)
TODAY: Jim Crowley at Redcar. Another Frankel colt at Haydock. A nap getting stones from the rest of the field at Wincanton. TOMORROW: British Champions Day at Ascot with, hopefully, Pricewise tempted to at least four of the six races, because Daqman wants to boost his feature-race returns to 80. Currently: Daqman 76, Pricewise 35
HOW CROWLEY ‘LIFTED’ THE JOCKEYS TITLE
I got one thing right. When Ryan Moore had his enforced holiday, I plumped for James Doyle to be champion jockey. But at the same time, I condemned the bookies for betting 1-5 Silvestre De Sousa, tempting the lemmings to supposed ‘easy money.’
Meanwhile, Jim Crowley (pictured) got more than one thing right; he got a record 46 rides right in one month, winners that carried him to the title.
Or did Crowley carry them? I haven’t computerized his results; but I know a man who has. And he reckons that, in some cases, Crowley has improved the rating of his winning mounts on the day by an average of between 3lb and 4lb.
In the handicapping range from sprint to middle and long distance, that is worth between a length and four lengths, depending on the trip, enough to turn around the form in a handicap, where in theory horses are weighted to finish level.
I remember when computers were in their infancy helping with the then arduous task of feeding in all Lester Piggott’s rides for a season – winners and losers – to compare each result with the ratings as they stood.
You couldn’t just leave it at that; you also had to check out the subsequent career of each horse to see whether it had continued its improvement, stayed the same or gone backwards. Piggott’s AVERAGE ‘lift’ to his winners was 6lb.
I use the word ‘lift’ intentionally. In some cases, watching Piggott’s races – as when you watched Tony McCoy in his prime – you could see him somehow ‘lifting’ the horse past the post, like some Brian Clough or Claudio Ranieri raising the game of players in a team that ‘shouldn’t really’ be there at the finish.
But watch the greats of jockeyship, watch the genuine team player and the solo runner, and they have in common hard work and dedication. Nothing comes easy. As they said of computers then: rubbish in, rubbish out.
Journalists are guilty of it, too, if not more so. A few facts or figures, and a screaming headline cannot hide to even the half-discerning that they are trying to get away with a cheap and gimmicky piece of work. Politicans too, of course.
So, when gentleman Jim is crowned champion jockey tomorrow in front of the Ascot crowds, he deserves our attention to the arduous detail of his days.
As Muhammad Ali said: ‘ Training? I hated every minute of it. But I just said to myself in my mind: this is how I will be champion.’
CAN HE NOW BEAT HIS DRUM AT REDCAR?
REDCAR Very much in the manner of Tony McCoy, Jim Crowley today honours his obligations to his trainers and his public by traveling North for six straight rides at Redcar. He could have said: ‘I’ve done enough. I can stop sweating now; stop driving myself the extra mile’.
But here he is, appropriately starting the day on Wordsearch (1.45) as the journos reach for their superlatives.
Wordsearch is with Hugo Palmer, who is one of the other new stars of the season; Palmer and Crowley have had 21 winners together, 15 of them two-year-olds (26% strike rate).
Unraced, so a bit of a punt, Wordsearch is 8.6 in the BETDAQ orange this morning, and you must have a saver on the plunge horse of the race, Armandihan.
Crowley has three mounts in a row for Palmer, but his book of rides is intriguing for the Palmer runner he DOESN’T partner.
Ironically, he swerves Harry Champion (3.25) in the Sam Hall Memorial to be on Devon Drum for David Brown, a trainer for whom he rides big-odds winners (so much so that their level-stakes profit together is more than 18 points).
Devon Drum is down in grade on the Flat for the first time since he won at Wolverhampton about a year ago at this trip.
Lightly raced for his eight years (23 starts), Devon Drum is a quirky sort – don’t hit the front too soon, Jim! – but Crowley must also have some of that McCoy connection with horses: A P wouldn’t be messed about; he got them working for their corn.
The result is a stream of ‘unexpected’ winners. And I thought that, at 14.0 Devon Drum, and 8.2 the one in the first, this pair were the best of the unexpected ones today.
Three-year-olds are six out of eight in this. So, looking for dangers – and presumably eliminating Harry Champion – I can’t have the other last-time winner, Sporty Yankee, with the stable having a shocking run (0-19 in the fortnight).
October Storm (8.6 best BETDAQ offers) could be the one, dropped three grades for Mick Channon, who is another to have had a really nice season.
HAYDOCK The first three home in the two years of the 2.35 race were all drawn in double-figure stalls; both were aged four.
That’s a pointer to Ustinov, who is a CD winner disguised by his two runs since. One was a step up in class; in the other he was hampered.
Snag is that, when he won, he was in first-time hood (will it ever work again?) and had only threeparts of a length to spare over Edward Lewis, second here again on the last day, unlucky loser to a horse that has finished close up in a Listed since.
Intense Style was the moral at Doncaster last month, second in a field of 20, beaten only a length and half, giving 9lb to the winner at today’s level.
This is a column about jockeyship: so can Frankie Dettori make the difference on the bridesmaid Edward Lewis? Frankie has been scintillating at times this eyar.
We’ve got big BETDAQ odds our pair, 14.5 Intense Style and 10.5 Ustinov, so we can afford a stakes saver on the favourite. Dettori’s likely ‘good thing’ is the Frankel colt, Weekender (3.45).
Despite winning a class 2 on the last day, Father Bertie (3.10) is able to drop down a grade here, carrying only 2lb more. A tasty 7.6.
A likely improver is the Ascot winner, Raising Sand (3.6 best offers), who has had only seven races in his entire career.
THE NAP In risking outsiders today, I’m acknowledging the open nature of low-class meetings on the Flat. So maybe we should try to ‘buy money’ for the day’s ventures from the 3.3 on offer about the youngster Cliffs Of Dover (2.25 Wincanton), getting up to two stone from his older rivals.
He’s a price because punters are nervous about his age and inexperience, but Paul Nicholls is a trainer who pushes them in at the deep end and his success rate is shorter odds than that.
DAQMAN BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength)
BET 2.5pts win and place WORDSEARCH, and 3pts win (stakes saver ARMANDIHAN (1.45 Redcar)
BET 8pts win (nap) CLIFFS OF DOVER (2.25 Wincanton)
BET 2pts win and place on each INTENSE STYLE and USTINOV, and 2.5pts win (stakes saver) EDWARD LEWIS (2.35 Haydock)
BET 5pts win FATHER BERTIE and 2pts win (stakes saver) RASING SAND (3.10 Haydock)
BET 7pts win WEEKENDER (3.45 Haydock)
BET 3pts win OCTOBER STORM, and 2pts win and place DEVON DRUM (3.25 Redcar)
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