WADE IN! DAQMAN LANDS SATURDAY GAMBLE: Daqman landed his usual Saturday big-race one-two with the gambled on Sir Graham Wade (WON 7-2 from 8.8) and Tropical Beat (2nd 5-1) at Haydock but otherwise it was a frustrating day.
JUST A BREATH AWAY: He had a nap hand of horses in the frame – Long Awaited, Bated Breath, Nathaniel, Field Of Dream and Stencive (beaten a neck) – including 10-1 and 12-1 shots – and one of his horses to follow, Duntle, was disqualified after winning at Leopardstown.
ANOTHER SNOW FORECAST AT 16.5: Today’s bets at York and on the Group-1 Curragh card include a Ballydoyle outsider at 16.5, another filly called ‘Snow’ after the Fairy-tale of yesterday’s Irish Champion Stakes.
2.45 The Curragh (Round Tower Stakes) George Vancouver looks a banker on the Curragh card, if he can reproduce his Prix Morny second to the unbeaten Reckless Abandon.
Leitir Mor actually finished in front of him over CD in June but that one has become one of my favourite lays, as a bridesmaid – six seconds and two thirds – on a par with Glor Na Mara, runner-up for the third time when second in this race in 2010 and who didn’t get off the mark until race number 16.
There are several lines to form through Leitir Mor, Boston Rocker and Lottie Dod, suggesting that the exposed animals here are much of a muchness and that it will take something to emerge from obscurity if George Vancouver is to be beaten. That would have to be Cougar Ridge.
2.55 York (Garrowby Stakes) Mince has gone up 20lb this year, making life in handicaps difficult, but she has stepped up successfully into the pattern – at the second attempt – and the firm ground today could be the key to extending her sequence.
Colour Of Love and Pepper Lane have both done best with some ease, and Inxile has won only once on top of the ground in more than three years.
3.50 The Curragh (Blandford Stakes) Three-year-olds are four out of five in this but it’s hard to be categorical since, before that, they lost all bar one Blandford in five years.
Of the older fillies in this, Nahrain landed a gamble in the Opera at the 2011 Arc meeting but be warned that not one of the next five home has finished in the frame since. It was a rubbish race.
Manieree and Chrysanthemum have already been beaten by one of the O’Brien duo, Soon and Up, and Sea Of Heartbreak must have top of the ground.
So which is it of the three-year-olds? There’s nothing, but a neck at most, on current form between Up and Caponata but you’d expect the one with three races on the CV, as opposed to 11, would come out best. Indeed, Caponata did finish in front of Up on today’s course on the last day, as they say in the old country.
4.25 The Curragh (Moyglare Stud Stakes) Ballydoyle has won this four times in nine years, three of them hot favourites but there was one surprise, 10-1 Misty For Me (2010).
‘Misty’, who went on to take the fillies’ Criterium at the Longchamp Arc meeting – and subsequently the 2011 Irish 1,000 Guineas – had been slow to reach such a peak, winning her maiden but beaten in a Group 2.
On BETDAQ this morning, Snow Queen, at 16.5 as I write, has taken even more time, seemingly needing heavy ground to get off the mark yet this is the mount of Joseph O’Brien and she was his father Aidan’s nomination for the race immediately after that win over CD a fortnight ago.
The opposition looks fierce and classy, with some Galileos, a Montjeu and a New Approach filly called Orpha, only a Ffos Las winner but another talked up afterwards, this time by her jockey, William Buick, who stays in Ireland for the one ride after Nathaniel’s brave effort at Leopardstown yesterday.
Neither Snow Queen nor Orpha has the form of Harasiya, who has already beaten the O’Brien filly, as well as finishing well in front of Diamond Sky, Nandiga and Magical Dream (another from Ballydoyle).
But Harasiya’s Group-3 win was followed by Group-2 defeat, in which My Special J’s, beaten by her at Leopardstown, overturned the form here at The Curragh.
Sendmylovetorose won the Cherry Hinton, the runner-up franking the form in a Group 3, and Sky Lantern comes into the mix as Richard Hannon’s selected.
One of those lightly raced could come on to beat the front of the market but the crazy offers about Snow Queen were milk and honey on my cornflakes.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 8pts win (nap) MINCE (2.55 York)
BET 2.2pts win ORPHA, plus 1.3pts win and place SNOW QUEEN (4.25 The Curragh)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 10pts win on each and 5pt win double GEORGE VANCOUVER (2.45 The Curragh) and CAPONATA (3.50 The Curragh), plus 2pts win treble the same two with Mince.
* Daqman’s win bets are staked to win 20 points (except in Daq Multiples), so normally you divide 20 by his stake to arrive at the offer taken at the time of making the selection.
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