DAQMAN STRIKES IN PARIS: 8-1 WINNER AND 18-5 FORTUNE COOKIE: Fortune Cookies made more than 30 points profit on Arc day at Longchamp yesterday with an 18-5 winner, after Daqman had landed a one-two in the Marcel Boussac at 8-1 and 14-1. As for the Arc itself, he had the 1-2-3 in his first five selections but, as the man said, ‘not necessarily in the right order’.
WON 8-1 TIGER TANAKA (Tasmania 2nd 14-1, same race)
WON 18-5 TARNAWA (Fortune Cookie)
ENABLE: IT MUST BE FAREWELL: ARC WRAP TODAY AND TOMORROW: Daqman pays tribute today to one of his first Fortune Cookies, Enable, and insists ‘It Must Be Farewell to the Legend’. Daqman’s wrap on the Arc meeting today continues tomorrow with revised Fortune Cookies.
TWO DOWN: The scheduled cards at Stratford and Windsor have been called off today. DAQMAN has three bets at Pontefract where the going is forecast as soft.
IT MUST BE FAREWELL TO THE LEGEND
Good but not the one. A six-year-old mare landed a record-breaking hat-trick in Paris yesterday. But she wasn’t the one the punters were hoping for.
They made Enable odds-on to win a third Arc de Triomphe but the heavy ground and a tactical ride in front by Pierre-Charles Boudot had them bunched like bananas behind until the stayers, Sottsass and In Swoop, broke from the pack.
Boudot was within his rights to try to nurse home doubtful stayer Persian King, my each-way pick at 15.0, but three of the first six places were in doubt until after a lengthy stewards’ inquiry.
And it was Boudot who recorded the history-making hat-trick for a mare, One Master, and her trainer, William Haggas, in their third consecutive Prix de la Foret which was the jockey’s 182nd winner of the year.
Boudot had landed the first leg of a double when Wooded hung on to beat my nap Glass Slippers’ renewed challenge a neck, after the lead see-sawed in the Abbaye sprint.
Dermot Weld’s Tarnawa swooped at the line to make it an Irish one-two in the Opera, just catching Jessica Harrington’s Alpine Star.
Tarnawa was turning up trumps for the Fortune Cookies but gratitude had already been muted and mixed with the sadness of something lost as Daqman’s first-ever Fortune Cookie, Enable, supposedly said farewell 14 wins and £10m on from that day I wrote her up after she won the Cheshire Oaks in May, 2017.
The excuses this morning – the ground and lack of pace – are not relevant to a farewell, and ‘they’ are saying they need a week to think about it. You don’t need a week.
Connections made the sporting gesture to run her; now, in their hearts, they want a winning climax to Enable’s career.
I say to that: you have used up all her ability and prestige and created a legend. Do not now use up the public’s admiration for you and your horse.
NORDANO GETS THE NOD
⭕ 1.30 Pontefract The Yorkshire circuit is a tough test at the best of times but throw in soft ground today and a 2m 2f trip here – and we need to be looking at extreme stamina.
Call My Bluff gets ticks in the going and distance boxes but is carrying a 6lb penalty after his Kempton win last week and might prove vulnerable here in a tougher contest.
He seems to have improved for the cheekpieces and is chasing the hat-trick here having also won at Goodwood on heavy ground.
There’s a big danger lurking though in the shape of Nordano who, although 0/5 on the flat, has really shone over hurdles and could be returning to the level on a very attractive handicap mark of 65.
He’s run well since a break before and when last seen in February at Ascot was hugely impressive when winning a handicap hurdle at Ascot by 16 lengths on soft ground.
He looked incredibly well handicapped over hurdles that day never mind the flat for which he could be the proverbial ‘blot’ on the weights.
The pair are much preferred to General Zoff whose only career win on the flat came on the all-weather.
J’ADORE MONSIEUR
⭕ 2.00 Pontefract By far and away the most competitive race on Monday and Captain Jameson is a significant non runner for this six furlong sprint.
On soft ground I definitely want to be playing the higher draw but that’s not putting backers off What A Business (2) and Twist Of Hay (4) who are both prominent in the market.
Monsieur Patat is interesting from his 14 berth at double figure odds.
He’s very lightly raced with just five starts and his only previous try on soft ground resulted in a win at Windsor over this trip.
He was a beaten favourite when returning to the track but that came on quicker ground and it might just be the ground is the key for him.
Mushariff is well drawn in 15 and three times a winner here at Pontefract but only once over six when it was good to firm.
He hasn’t been overly penalised for his latest success and is probably the biggest danger.
VIVA VEGAS
⭕ 3.00 Pontefract Challet is out to complete the hat-trick for Michael Dods but is up another 3lb and ran poorly at Hamilton on his only previous start on soft ground.
Preference is for Sir Michael Stoute’s Date In Vegas who seemed to handle soft well enough on her debut at Newmarket when third to the odds-on Ricetta. She has shaped well enough since in two starts on the all-weather and is interesting here on handicap debut.
The trainer has pulled Shamaroon out of the earlier 1.00 race and also saddles the odds-on Hydros earlier in the day at 2.30pm.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 10 points)
BET 5.0pts win (nap) NORDANO (1.30 Pontefract)
BET 1,0pts win and 2.8pts place (both to win 10) MONSIEUR PATAT (2.00 Pontefract)
BET 1.7pts win DATE IN VEGAS (3.00 Pontefract)
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