DAQMAN BIDS FOR BACK-TO-BACK NAPS AFTER 4-1 STRIKE: Daqman waits until the last at Wolverhampton today in his bid to follow up Saturday’s winning 4-1 nap, Toga Tiger at Kempton Park, which has been unable to stage a meeting since.
KING-SIZED DOUBLE-WHAMMY: But there’s plenty of action earlier on when Daqman tries a double whammy: opposing the favourite and bidding for a King-sized punt at 9.2 in the same heat. All his bets are in punter-friendly races, as he explains at the foot of his column.
‘The best is yet to come’ but I’m a lay. Meglio Ancora could equally be translated as ‘more of the best’ or ‘the best yet’. But if he wins at Wolverhampton today, trainer Richard Ford will be breaking the habit of a lifetime. Well, of 10 years anyway.
Ford has had 77 losing runners in 3,679 days at Wolver, according to the trade paper. No winners, though only a length or so off target when Meglio Ancora ran second over CD eight days ago.
Meglio Ancora (4.35) won over that same CD for Alastair Lidderdale in August but, with Lancashire trainer Ford’s poor form (no winners this year), has been 12-1, 28-1 and 33-1 SP on his last three starts since switching stables.
After breaking his maiden, ‘Meglio’ won only races for amateurs and apprentices, a good sign for today’s rider, Racheal Kneller, but a bad sign overall, in that such races are generally unreliable; the form is suspect.
Racheal has won on two of her last five mounts but Meglio Ancora has been seen hanging badly under her on both recent Wolver runs, in fact throwing away the prize on that last day.
I could have egg on my face – it’s a poor handicap, all of them probably ‘twicers’ – but my advice on the evidence to the owners, The Most Wanted Partnership (you said it, lads!), is to fit blinkers to Meglio Ancora.
Even if he doesn’t contrive to throw it away, Meglio Ancora will be hard pressed to confirm the last-day placings with the third horse home, This Ones For Eddy, who is within about a length of him on that form.
But I’m sticking my neck on the line for a stable that’s hot. Gary Moore had four winners in a row last week, eight out of nine in the first two.
Moore runs the unexposed Leitrim King, not an easy horse to train but who would have won under today’s rider, Shane Kelly, at this trip on the course in June, slipping the field from the mile gate but failing to hold on over 1m 4f.
I don’t think there is much doubt as to Kelly’s orders for the shorter distance today on the former William Haggas inmate. He’s well placed in stall 12 to go for it.
My point is I’d prefer his 9.2 on BETDAQ this morning in a race like this at twice the price of the unwilling favourite.
Kelly has two more cracking rides. Alborz (3.05) looks another make-all mount but can he hold off Sohcahtoa, a hold-up horse who has won a class higher?
And Kelly’s eye must be on the main chance later on, Lean On Pete (5.35), who got up to foil the plodder Follow The Flag last time and is three in a row at Wolver.
Noble Jack needed blinkers first time to get back to winning form after a slump since his short-head defeat of Spanish Plume over CD in July. Spanish Plume is not much cop but is 11lb better off today, which seems damning to Noble Jack’s form.
Front-runners Strong Man, for in-form Mick Easterby, and Passionada (2-2 over 5f) could have the legs of them in the opener (2.35).
Thanks to offers totting up to only 105% probability on BETDAQ, as I write, I can back both or, at least, not to get involved at combined odds too short for class-5 animals, I can back one and save on the other.
I’ll go for Strong Man, who has lasted out 7f under the Graham Gibbons whip and come back for more three weeks later. Strong man; strong horse.
DAQMAN’S BETS
DAQ VALUE: BET 5.5pts win STRONG MAN and 2.2pts win (stakes saver) PASSIONADA (2.35 Wolverhampton)
DAQ VALUE: BET 5.7pts win SOHCAHTOA and 1.4pts win (stakes saver) ALBORZ (3.05 Wolverhampton)
LAY 10pts MEGLIO ANCORA and DAQ VALUE: BET 2.4pts win LEITRIM KING (4.35 Wolverhampton)
DAQ VALUE: BET 7pts win (nap) LEAN ON PETE (5.35 Wolverhampton)
* All bets are staked to win 20 points, except the savers, which are staked to cover the cost of the main bet in the race. Daq Value indicates punter-friendly races with a total probability this morning of between 105% and 110%.
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