DAQMAN LANDS 5-1 FRENCH LEGER HIT: With one week to go to the end of the Flat season, Daqman went further ahead of Pricewise in their value race when he named the winner of the French St Leger, Ice Breeze, at 51-10. It took the scores to 83-21, with Daqman 319 points clear to single-unit stakes.
PLUS 10-1 ENGLISH WIN AT ST-CLOUD: Daqman tipped in just two races at Saint-Cloud and won them both at odds paying at least 148 points profit to 10-unit stakes. Ice Breeze was his eighth Classic success of the season. The first winner at just under 10-1 was a Sir Michael Stoute raider:
WON 97-10 INTIMATION
WON 51-10 ICE BREEZE (French St Leger)
Hoofnote: Ice Breeze is reported a 7-1 winner in the Racing Post report on the race but 51-10 in the results page.
FOLLOW THE GRADE-1 TIPSTER..
Aidan O’Brien has the fat lady on ice. Though the Flat season peters out over here with the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday, there are more Group-1 chances. In France on Sunday, in Australia (Melbourne Cup) and in America (Breeders Cup) in November.
And Daqman gave further notice yesterday that he is the man to follow in Group and Grade analysis of racing abroad this autumn.
Also look out next week for his horses to follow over Jumps, and his top trainers and jockeys past and present. Since their leading man is 62 wins behind him, he also has plans to take on all 200 Racing Post experts. Watch this space!
HYANNA WANTS THE MONEY BACK
2.20 Pontefract A tasty end-of-season nursery which has seen southern horses snatch the prize six times in the last eight seasons.
A double-figure stall has won only once in the decade, so Gamesters Icon, Voice Of The North, French Resistance and Sinaloa are all badly drawn today.
Seven of the 10 winners came from stalls 6, 7, 8 and 9, but two came from 1 and 2.
My pick is Tim Easterby’s 8.6 BETDAQ offer Hyanna (stall 2) for whom the money was down over course and distance a month back but she couldn’t get a clear run and, when she did, a race only eight days earlier might have taken its toll on heavy ground.
3.20 Pontefract The draw again feeds in a strong line to the alghorithm with five of the last seven winners coming from stalls 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Tim Easterby has one in the right slot here, too: Silvery Moon, from the 3 stall, is 10-years-old, and it may be a tad late in life to try to break his Pontefract course hoodoo of 202234.
But you have to say that the handicapper has given him every chance. He hasn’t been this low down the ratings in SIX years, and his last three runs were in higher grade. I took a bit of 9.2 on BETDAQ.
Faithful Creek has a very poor strike rate (1-22) and Purple Rock, who has started at huge odds recently, not much better (2-24).
Rashford’s Double has dropped below 80 for the first time since he scored a year ago but soft ground hasn’t suited, according to his CV.
Tuff Rock ran his worst races this year on soft. Pirate Look hasn’t scored since his maiden, always a bad sign.
Misscarlett and Royal Shaheen have both won over CD on soft. Can they overcome stalls 10 and 12 respectively? Pirate Look, who likes to lead, is in 11 but ran ok when made favourite first run after being gelded.
3.50 Pontefract (Silver Tankard) Seven winners in the decade have come from the low-four stalls to win this Listed, which has eight times out of 10 gone to southern raiders.
Veejay ran a good race when third at York giving weight to the first two but, like Simpson, has been well beaten on soft ground.
By a soft-ground sire, Connect won easily with cut in the ground at Sandown and returned as front-runner there in a Group 3 last month. Should find this much easier.
But the same can be said of Dark Acclaim, who ruined his chance in a Listed at Haydock on heavy when slowly away, but finished just behind Learn By heart, who was already a winner on soft.
Old Persian goes for a hat-trick, still unexposed after only three starts, and is the obvious saver if you took 13.5 Dark Acclaim and 16.5 Connect this morning, as I did on BETDAQ.
4.50 Pontefract (Phil Bull Trophy) While many writers and tipsters spent their formative racing days at Bull’s Timeform empire, I saw much less of him but he taught me a lesson in double-quick time.
Trust your own judgment and don’t listen to anyone, unless you are sure they’re making sense and making money. Bull, himself, fitted that bill.
Spotting the flaws in published stats was one angle for the former schoolteacher and mathematician. He trusted his own but no one else’s.
So today, in the race named after him, he might have been delighted to see one or two papers this morning declare: no three-year-old has ever won this race.
In fact, no three-year-old has ever RUN in this race, so could only have won it in an episode of Charmed!
The second-season animal in this today is Dominating, which sums up the style of so many runners from the Mark Johnston stable, which won the race last year.
La Fritillaire and Tuscan Gold are both dual Pontefract winners and Minotaur, bought for hurdles after seven successes, mainly in the French Provinces, could break his duck over here any time.
But Johnston has spotted that, as a three-year-old, his Ascot winner, Dominating, is set only 8st 7lb under the conditions of the race. So, though he is rated 2lb better than Suegioo, he is receiving 9lb from that one.
BETDAQ TIPS (each staked to win 20 points)
BET 2.6pts win HYANNA (2.20 Pontefract)
BET 2.4pts win SILVERY MOON (3.20 Pontefract)
BET 1.6pts win and place DARK ACCLAIM, and 1.25pts win and place CONNECT, plus 3.75pts (stakes saver) OLD PERSIAN (3.50 Pontefract)
BET 10pts win (nap) DOMINATING (4.50 Pontefract)
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