6.0 NAP AT THE MORNING OFFERS: Daqman, whose naps sequence is currently 22WWWW2, goes for a 6.0 morning offer at Huntingdon this afternoon.
JACKPOT PLANNED FOR TOMORROW: Don’t miss Daqman tomorrow: the price-wise Saturday king plans a jackpot bet at double-figure odds in the Lanzarote Hurdle.
I could have stopped Frankel yesterday. After three good days, I got the North Yorkshire Grand National right – back the lightweights – but picked the wrong horses, the one-two coming off 10st 7lb and 10st 5lb, as predicted. I ‘dissed’ the favourite but didn’t lay it.
My nap contrived to be beaten at odds on, and then my spotlight turned on Adam Kirby. Adam duly obliged me with a winner, Grendisar, but that, too, went odds on, and the same day the jockey heard he had been given a seven-day holiday by the Stewards.
Cockney Sparrow, the losing nap, had been dropped in class (from an Aintree Listed race) to win his maiden. But then to aim for an ordinary class-4 juvenile event at Catterick was tantamount to admitting he never was that good.
If he’d been any good, he would have been aimed at something halfway decent after that Listed second and maiden win. I should have known better. I did know better.
So let’s get down to brass tacks! Brass Tax (2.20 Huntingdon) is much more difficult to weigh up than Cockney Sparrow. Both earned penalties, so giving 7lb to their field.
Brass Tax is dropped in class from a close second to Cedre Bleu at Ascot (class 2) to this class-3. Malt Master, favourite this morning, was a 5-2 on loser for Tony McCoy the last day.
But the mistake in the BETDAQ offers is surely 6.0 Asaid, who contested Grade 1 over hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival and, if this were ‘over the sticks’, the ratings (rounded up or down to 11st) would work out as Asaid 141, Malt Master 135, Brass Tax 121.
The Huntingdon fences are not so severe that he can’t make this a winning chase debut. He loves right-hand tracks, whereas Malt Master’s success has come lefthanded.
If there were ratings for jockeys, Brendan Powell would be top man in the opener, and his mount, Soutine (12.50), is unexposed over today’s trip in a handicap for the first time: 8.2 on BETDAQ this morning made him backable.
Brendan can claim off Glen Countess (1.50). She was run out of it at Market Rasen when dropping back from open chases to a novices’ handicap but the rest were beaten out of sight and there’s precious little form among her rivals today.
John Ferguson, who trains my bet, Asaid, at Huntingdon, has another one getting all the allowances, Three Kingdoms (12.40) at Sedgefield.
If this were a Flat race, the ratings rounded up or down to 11st, would be Three Kingdoms 89, Counsel 85, Painted Tail 71, Grammar 56, No Quarter 53, Emperor Of Rome 43.
In similar vein to Cockney Sparrow yesterday, Counsel, having won his maiden and done not too badly in a Grade 2, is dropping back to novice company.
Three Kingdoms’ success over 1m 4f (heavy) on the Flat at Galway suggests the expected rain at Sedgefield will be welcome, and so will a slog that brings out his stamina. Has been gelded, so the blinkers of his Flat days may not be needed.
On AW, I am banking on a return to form for Art History (6.30 Woilverhampton) on a man-made surface for a trainer having a terrific run right now.
DAQMAN BETS
BET 9.5pts win THREE KINGDOMS (12.40 Sedgefield)
BET 2.7pts win SOUTINE (12.50 Huntingdon)
BET 4.4pts win GLEN COUNTESS (1.50 Huntingdon)
BET 4pts win (nap) ASAID (2.20 Huntingdon)
BET 4.2pts win ART HISTORY (6.30 Wolverhampton)
* Each of Daqman’s bets is staked to win 20 points (so you can work out the Betdaq offer he took by dividing 20 by the stake).
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