DAQMAN TOPPER! IT’S A HAT-TRICK OF NAPS: Daqman did it again yesterday, landing his third nap in a row with Harry Topper (WON 5-4), following a maximum-stakes banker on Chatterbox (WON 5-4) on Saturday. Broxbourne (WON 13-8) launched the treble on Friday.
EVERYONE’S A WINNER: That was winning nap number 12 in the new year, and all his special bets are now in profit. Here they are:
NAPS NOW UP 29.63: Harry Topper took Daqman’s naps profit for 2013 up to a total of 29.63 points.
BANKER 25 POINTS: The lone banker on Chatterbox won 25 points.
LAYS ON 30 POINTS: Daqman’s score of 8 out of 11 successful lays shows 30 points profit all told.
JACKPOTS PLUS 9.00: The 2013 Daqman jackpots have had four winners, one at 6-1 and three at 5-1, for 9.05 points overall profit
HORSES TO FOLLOW 5.72: With five horses to follow having won from nine bets, the Daqman Dozen shows 5.72 points profit.
DAQMAN SAYS……………………………
Check out my full stats for 2013 in DAQMAN’s LIBRARY which contains the records of all my Jackpot Bets, Naps, Lays, Horses To Follow, Ante-Post bets and headlines for 2013 CLICK HERE
Come on Kim, take a leaf from Paul Nicholls’ book. If Harry Topper were Ditcheat trained, he’d be in the Gold Cup by now. ‘My best since Master Oats’, says Kim Bailey but no definite plans.
I’ve never been altogether sure when the Pipes and Paul Nicholls have aimed high with young horses – and once or twice results have been disastrous – but Master Topper looks professional enough for me.
The Gold Cup is just my bit of hyperbole but the Bailey-Nicholls comparison is relevant because Harry Topper and Ditcheat’s Rocky Creek stand alongside each other in the Cheltenham National Hunt Chase market.
And, in fact, they finished little more than a length apart at level weights in a beginners’ chase at Exeter in October.
They’ve both improved since then, ‘Rocky’ to a 149 rating, which is likely to be at least matched by Harry Topper, who was on 143 before winning at Exeter yesterday.
In the Exeter race, he beat a 139-rated Nicholls’ horse called Hawkes Point, with a 145 beast of Alan King’s in third. The distances, of 12 lengths and one and threequarters, suggest that Harry Topper may well overtake ‘Rocky’ in the ratings.
Since we already have 16.0 on BETDAQ about Rocky Creek for the RSA Chase – he’s now 10-1 with most bookmakers – we will be looking for an NH Chase bet on him later on.
Meanwhile, Ladbrokes are biggest about ‘Rocky’ for the RSA and have him as short as 6-1 favourite for the NH Chase, so we know where their opinion lies.
At least we’ve got the RSA ‘overs’ about Rocky Creek and, with a month still to go, it’s a case of ‘hold your bets’ on any alternative wager with either of that Exeter one-two.
But I feel that, at the offers on BETDAQ this morning, we must go in again on Chatterbox, this time taking 20.0 for the Neptune.
We’ve backed him for the Supreme Novice. Now 20.0 for the Neptune has us covered ante-post for all eventualities on this underestimated Cheltenham contender.
Catterick opens with a question-mark over Abbey Storm (2.05). I don’t doubt his ability to get 3m. No, the question-mark is whether Tipsy Gypsy can bring his winning Point form to the table first time for Tim Vaughan and Richard Johnson.
The market says he’ll give it a go. Whichever one you fancy, I wouldn’t be too worried about Imperial Vic: he has to give 7lb and more off top weight, his stable is out of form and he’s only ever won at Musselburgh under Rules.
The Vaughan-Johnson partnership also run Amok in the 2m handicap hurdle (2.40), though will Amok run restrained? He’s been kept in midfield the last twice but made most at Fakenham for his sole success in November when he lost the lead at the final flight but his challenger fell.
Alba King is a pace racer, who made most at his only winning track, Sedgefield, but success has been achieved solely on firmish ground. Trend Is My Friend could improve, first time in a handicap. Royal Opera might bounce back for a yard that’s 50% in these events on the course.
Brave Spartacus (4.10) has found life easy at Catterick so far with three in a row still standing. The handicapper penalised him only 7lb for winning a street there on New Year’s Day but has lumped 18lb on for the follow-up 10 days later when he eased right down to score, also against lesser lights.
Brave Spartacus is up in grade today to a level which every other runner in the race has already attempted with some success.
One of them, Shangani, has raced in class 3 only in a novice chase but looked well worth a crack at these when making all the running at Sandown (class 4), for which he faces a 9lb rise.
Lease Lend has won just once in around three years but his Catterick record is two out of two and he’s been knocking at the door in class-2 chases at Wetherby recently.
At Wolverhampton, with Lean On Pete out of the race, the 4.30 handicap gives Patriotic a chance to return to form on his favourite track (four Wolver wins) at a tasty 5.8 this morning.
Noble Jack (also four wins) is an opponent in full stride but Patriotic has won most of his races at this time of year and Noble Jack is up in both grade and weight and is the older horse.
Idol Deputy also moves up in class and was easy to back this morning, 9.6 against a forecast 5-1 or so. So let’s be Patriotic with Adam Kirby to help raise the flag.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 4pts win AMOK (2.40 Catterick)
BET 6.6pts win SHANGANI (4.10 Catterick)
BET 4.1pts win (nap) PATRIOTIC (4.30 Wolverhampton)
ANTE-POST: WIN-50 JACKPOT BET: 2.6pts win CHATTERBOX (Neptune Hurdle, Cheltenham)
Daqman’s selections are backed to win 20 points, so you know the offer he took from the points he’s placed (divide 20 by the stake). Jackpot bets are where stakes are raised to win 30, 40 or even 50 points.
Did you know that as well as checking the realtime prices on BETDAQ below – you can also log into your account and place your bets directly into BETDAQ from BETDAQ TIPS.
