BACK-TO-BACK NAPS UP AT 100-30 AND 5-2: Daqman, who hit five tasty winners on Saturday, has followed up with two naps out of two, also at rewarding odds: Havin’ A Good Time (WON 5-2) yesterday and Cape Explorer (WON 100-30) on Sunday.
‘COME ON, COME ON, YOU MUST HAVE A CHANCE’: Trainer interviews are top of Daqman’s list for the new Channel-4 team. Here’s his ABC guide to what the punter wants on telly. And what he doesn’t want.
It’s easy to criticise when you’ll never have to do it. But can we keep it sharp and simple, Channel-4. I hesitate to say ’back to basics’ since the phrase has long become the last resort of impotent politicians. But I would like the new Channel-4 team to observe these obvious criteria:
Commentator: Can we please hear from you the order of the horses as they race, but not monotonously. When the running order doesn’t change, please check out the colours with us, describe the pace, the tactics being employed, and how much pressure who is exerting on what horse.
Listen to yourself on the replay and vow never again to repeat the same formulaic phrases (‘giving them a fair start’). If the horses are just numbers to you, you are in the wrong game.
Tipster: ‘E’s a nice ‘orse and shouldn’t be 33-1’ doesn’t get us very far, particularly when it is repeated in the next race about another no-hoper. Can we hear more about the state of the ground and how each runner might be affected, how the horse usually races and what to watch out for.
If you really do think you’re a tipster, let’s log up your results; have a (value) nap; expose your ability, instead of hiding behind chummy bantering and hard-luck stories, and ‘well, it’s down to three or four here but, if you put a gun to my head, I’d say Frankel might win.’
Betting: Can we try to join words – even phrases – together, and form sentences. ‘There’s a lot of support for’ (glances at paper) ‘erm Frankel.’ This disjointed cue-carding suggests you are not really interested in the market; you are just nervously parroting a few hurried notes.
Please, no more turning to the camera at the end of a betting discussion and waiting interminably for fade-out, like Little And Large on a bad day.
Interviewing: Yes, we do like to have some idea of personality, of trainer and jockey, but you won’t get it with the same old same old ‘how do you feel now?’
More important to the punter is what chance the horse has. Know a few facts and try using a lead-in (‘isn’t the ground too heavy for your horse today?’), even a cosying up with a ‘come on, come on, you must think you have a chance.’
But the amateurish ‘is he in good order’ and ‘is he going to win’ is naïve in the extreme, and an insult to the trainer. Not many trainers are prepared to say: ‘No, he’s not off a yard!’
Those who are prepared to make admissions – that the ground is against, that it’s a prep, that the horse is a ‘twicer’, whatever – are meat and drink to the viewing punter, and the interviewer should keep him or her on side for future occasions.
Links: There’s a difference between occasional bantering and chummy ego-tripping. The team should be there to be of service, not to try to make stars of themselves.
Sighting a naff piece of gossip in front of a particular bookie’s joint used to be a sure sign of product placement by those addressing the camera: in other words, he or she owed that bookie in wads! I’m sure that doesn’t happen now, does it (raises voice and pauses for freeze frame).
Cameras: Once this year (I can’t remember the horse) a winner wide on the course wasn’t included in the replay. There was only one finish camera on one side of the track. They even tried a second reprise and it still didn’t get into frame!
Many times this year, the camera has seen only the front-end finish of a race. Even the mug punter knows that what’s going on behind is essential knowledge for his future bets.
Good luck: I wish the new team well, whoever they may be (we know one of them is Balding but still bouncing and ageing well).
To you all: just remember there are THREE of us involved in each shot: you, what you’re looking at, and me. And, though I’ll never be seen or heard, I am the most important of the three.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 1.7pts win and place TILL DAWN (2.00 Bath)
BET 2.9pts win SIOUX CHIEFTAIN (2.40 Wolverhampton)
BET 2.4pts win (nap) CATS EYES (4.00 Bath)
BET 3.4pts win DUSTLAND FAIRYTALE (5.10 Wolverhampton)
BET 4pts win on each HUMMINGBIRD and ALEKSANDER (8.05 Yarmouth)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 3pts win double CATS EYES (4.00 Bath) and EXCEPTIONELLE (6.20 Nottingham)
* Daqman’s selections are backed to win 20 points (unless otherwise stated) so, if you divide 20 by his stake, you know the Betdaq offer taken at the time of writing.
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.
