NAP FINISHES IN THE FIRST TWO FOR 10 RACES IN A ROW: Daqman landed his nap at Navan yesterday with Alderwood (WON 8-11), bringing his current sequence to 22WWWW222W. Today’s best bet is in the last race at Plumpton.
Alan King is chasing a strike rate of almost 50% at Plumpton. But his runner, Midnight Sail (3.10), is an ‘almost’ chaser, a nearly horse with six seconds from seven starts.
Midnight Sail has won neither hurdle nor chase outside the novice stage and this bridesmaid of 10 months has gone up 10lb for all his failure to earn the bouquet but once, a six-runner race at Fontwell, when only three finished and the odds-on ‘jolly’ pulled up.
‘No extra’ and ‘stayed on same pace’ sum up his kind of finish, and his success in the novice field came over further, at least 2m 6f, so today’s trip is on the short side.
He’s recently been tried ‘in rear’, ‘with leader’ and ‘in touch’, all with the same result: second, second, second. He’s got a worse dose of seconditis than my naps but ‘Kingy’ stays faithful to his charge, claiming he ‘keeps bumping into one.’ I’ll say! He’s like an old dodgem car.
I’m also ‘agin’ Simply Wings on this left-hand track (both his wins have come righthanded), his having recently run badly at Worcester – jumped right – and won on that stamina-sapping righthander at Towcester.
The trouble with Delgany Gunner and No No Bingo is both are stuck in a rut in class-4, both now 7lb higher than they’ve ever won off. Charlie Longsdon is doing well and won at the last Plumpton meeting so ‘Bingo’ is not a no-no, and has a two-year age advantage over Delgany Gunner.
Firebird Flyer should also be on the upgrade at only six years old. He’s dropped back in trip but has always been a handy horse and is down in grade from his hurdles run the last day at Doncaster. Can he give weight all round?
Lord Singer hasn’t won for two years but is still 8lb higher than his last recorded victory at Fakenham over the minimum. He didn’t get home at today’s trip last time out.
I’ve had two successes out of three with win and place in small fields, and No No Bingo – 4.0 for the win – is evens a place on BETDAQ as I write. So money back or call ‘house’ I hope. Or both.
On the Flat, Ed Dunlop always gives his youngsters an educational outing first, and his rare NH runner, The Tiger (1.10), could come on a ton for his seemingly disappointing effort at Fakenham.
The 6.8, with nothing else fancied against the more exposed top-weight, Valdez, looks another good win-and-place opportunity.
I’m skipping the small fields but punters please note: every race at Plumpton had an offers total in the orange of between 103% and 111% at the time of writing. You are in friendly punting territory.
In the two handicap hurdles at the end of the card there were four horses backed in each race, biggish double figures bar those.
Dual CD winner Hazy Bay (at 6.8 on BETDAQ in the 3.40) looked primed for this, after a run back at the end of last month, with ‘Award’ never a ‘Winner’ this far, and Tidal Dance and Virginia Ash still maidens.
Little Roxy (4.10) is a standing dish on many a Plumpton menu with form figures below class 4 of 31134323. She holds the other recent Plumpton winners, My Sister and Airedale Lad, on December form at the track.
She gets 21lb from On The Feather, and the two others at the front of the market are maidens. She only has to run up to those December runs to win this.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 3.4pts win and place THE TIGER (1.10 Plumpton)
BET 6.6pts win and place NO NO BINGO (3.10 Plumpton)
BET 3.4pts win HAZY BAY (3.40 Plumpton)
BET 7.5pts win (nap) LITTLE ROXY (4.10 Plumpton)
* Daqman’s bets are 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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