WISE UP AND BEAT THE LAYERS ON BETDAQ: There’s plenty to go round for everyone on BETDAQ, says our betting man, Daqman, who echoes the message of racing legend Phil Bull: wise up and be a winner.
PLACE THAT EACH-WAY BET: Daqman is searching out horses in races of eight to 10 runners today, where there are three chances of a place to save your stakes on the win bet.
It was one of my first lessons from a master. Howard Wright’s article about Phil Bull in the Racing Post this morning reminded me of the day I interviewed the great man at his desk in the hallowed Timeform HQ at Halifax.
I was a reporter for a national paper but my ambition was to win money betting, and I had long decided that Phil Bull, Paul Major (Horse Sense) and Murray Dwyer would be my guiding lights.
More about Major and Dwyer at a later date, though Dwyer was with me that day in Halifax for an audience with ex-schoolmaster Bull in the hope that the Pope of punting would bless us with his wisdom.
‘I just have a phone call to make,’ said Bull, asking a female voice on his switchboard: ‘Get me Hilliam Will!’ The voice came back a few minutes later: ‘I can’t find him, sir.’
‘I want to back a horse with Hills!’ Bull rasped, aware that his Spoonerism had fallen on barren ground. Again the delay, then the girl responded: ‘I can’t find Hills, sir; what do they do?’
‘Sack her!’ Dwyer suggested. ‘Oh no,’ said Bull, somewhat philanthropically, or so it seemed at first. ‘I shall keep her on. She will be a reminder to me of the first law of punting.’ He paused but we knew better than to question the great man: he was merely taking breath.
‘She will remind me of all the punters out there who haven’t the brains to understand that, if they keep on betting blind, they will lose their money, and I will take some of it from them.
‘Remember: you can’t beat the bookie. But you can beat the other backer and take some of his money from that bookie’s satchel. You see, the meaning of the word gamble is what the average man does: he bets on something without having the faintest idea of the outcome. In that sense, I’m not a gambler.’
Whizz forward a few decades and Bull’s intended confrontation, not with the old enemy, the bookmaker, but with his fellow punter, is now happening direct, man to man, on BETDAQ.
There is no intervening bookmaker – no Hilliam Will or Coe Joral – as an intermediary with the chance of manipulating the odds for his own profit. What you get is what the other punter is fool enough (or wise enough, watch yourself!) to put ‘on the table’ (on the orange and green) from his BETDAQ wallet.
3.10 Haydock: Bull told me each-way betting was ‘an odd business, really’: if you want to back one horse at a big price and another horse at a smaller price, why choose the same horse every time?
But he made two exceptions: the first was an innovation at the time to me, as a ‘blind’ punter: you don’t need to equally divide your stakes when you bet each way; you can have 10 points the win and 3 points the place. If the bookie doesn’t like it, have 7 points the win, and then have 3 points each way the same horse. It was obvious, but seemed like sharp Yorkshire tactics to me at the time.
His second ploy was to bet each way in an eight-runner race (such as this one at Haydock) where the place part of the bet has three chances in eight of a ‘win’.
Of course, on BETDAQ this morning, I could bet place only. But I fancied Andalieb each way. He’d done well to finish fifth to the prolific Fennell Bay, and then win at Doncaster as he liked.
I thought I could forget his run on the heavy at the Newmarket July meeting when, in fact, he was a shorter price than any one of the first three home. The 7.6 offers this morning looked reasonable, with the place part covering the win stake.
3.50 Brighton Challenge Cup: I missed the Brighton Mile yesterday (I concentrated on the BETDAQ races on the controversial Kempton surface) but wouldn’t have backed Frozen Over, not even each way.
The Challenge Cup has one promising stat for each-way backers: it is never ever won by the favourite but usually by one well fancied (five out of six between 9-2 and 7-1), where the stakes-saver place ploy is useful.
The favourite to oppose was Varnish: she’s been in the frame in some very slow run 1m 2f races and I can’t see why 1m 4f should suit a daughter of Choisir, who has got only four winners beyond 11 furlongs in his entire stud career at a strike rate of a modest 9%.
The other three-year-old, Maastricht, hasn’t done much either and is looking exposed with twice as many races on his CV as Varnish and with just a mile maiden to show for it.
But, if the rain stays away, and the ground dries out on that Brighton hill (it’s like watching racing from a crow’s nest sometimes!), Dubai Glory is a nailed-on win-and-place bet at 11.0 offers on BETDAQ, as I write.
Handler Sheena West has had two winners from her last four starters and Dubai Glory is a different animal on better ground. The filly’s last 10 form figures are 30140000220 but, take out all going bar good or firmer, and they become 1110301402.
SANDOWN: Now level with Ryan Moore, Richard Hughes has the bit between his teeth, winning with seven of his last 13 mounts, three in a row for Richard Hannon.
He has two Hannon rides tonight but the first, Take The Lead (5.40), has in fact lost the leader in the market, out to 6.2 in the face of an early-doors gamble on New Fforest.
Both Take The Lead and Winning Express are better drawn than New Fforest but I don’t ffancy taking on an Oasis Dream with the money down already.
The Hughes-Hannon team look good with Raging Bear (6.40), who should come on for his Goodwood maiden, now stepped up to the mile trip which is meat and drink to the Hannon yard, but over which stamina-bred Excess Knowledge and Evangelist might be struggling for pace.
I nearly wrote ‘Raging Bull’ instead of Raging Bear. How the Yorkshire schoolmaster would have loved to tilt at fellow punters acting as layers on BETDAQ. Sharpen up lads, there could be some young bulls about.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 3.8pts win and place JOUSTER (3.00 Yarmouth)
BET 3pts win and place ANDALIEB (3.10 Haydock)
BET 3.4pts win and place JACK LUEY (3.40 Haydock)
BET 2pts win and 4pts place DUBAI GLORY (3.50 Brighton)
BET 3.7pts win and 5pts place MR UDAGAWA (5.15 Chepstow)
BET 5.7pts win RAGING BEAR (6.40 Sandown)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 10pts win on each and 5pts win double DISCLAIMER (2.10 Haydock) and NEW FFOREST (nap, 5.40 Sandown), plus 1pt win treble the same two with RAGING BEAR (6.40 Sandown)
* Daqman’s selections are backed to win 20 points for the win (except Daq Multiples) so, if you divide 20 by his stake, you know the Betdaq offer taken at the time of writing. Points are what you make them: if your unit stake is £5, then 5pts win is £25.
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.
