SIX NAPS IN A ROW IN THE FIRST TWO: Daqman’s current naps form is 211221 after an odds-on winner yesterday. Today his best bet is at Yarmouth.
TEN TOP TWO-YEAR-OLDS TO FOLLOW: This is how the two-year-olds scene looks to Daqman, with the Mill Reef Stakes coming up on Saturday and Fillies’ Mile, Royal Lodge and Cheveley Park at the end of the month.
Camelot’s defeat may have cost Aidan O’Brien more than a St Leger. Doncaster Saturday was good news day for John Gosden’s English trainers’ title hopes. There is now just a few grand between them, with all to play for.
The pair have dominated English and Irish racing this year and I make no apologies for compiling my list of two-year-olds around them, with both yards already looking to the 2013 Classics, their runners to the fore in Guineas and Derby betting.
AGENT ALLISON First alphabetically is the Peter Chapple-Hyam trained Albany Stakes runner-up, whose sire won the Morny and the Middle Park for the same trainer. She goes straight to the Fillies Mile.
AMBERLEY HEIGHTS Richard Hannon is renowned for his two-year-olds and in particular their huge hauls from the big Sales races. Saturday will see him raid for more Tattersalls Millions money, another £100,000 prize.
My early prediction is for Amberley Heights, who would then try to follow up in one of two subsequent ‘Millions’ at the Cambridgeshire meeting.
Amberley Heights only scrambled home at Newbury in July but the ground turned soft and the race was run massively slowly.
ASHDAN I sensibly napped Ashdan on Friday, after hearing of his sparkling work at John Gosden’s yard, and sure enough he scored at the Leger meeting at odds on, also despite a slow-run race.
This is some compensation for John Gosden for the loss of Newfangled as we come to the autumn two-year-old classics, with Ashdan entered in the Dewhurst and the Racing Post Trophy.
BLAINE I usually forget about Gimcrack winners but the 2011 scorer Caspar Netscher went on to win the Mill Reef, harking back to a similar double when Amadeus Wolf followed up in the Middle Park a few years back.
Now Amadeus Wolf’s yard has produced what could be the best of them all in my opinion: Blaine didn’t just stick his neck out to win from a promising field at York; he stuck his jaw out.
‘Such courage,’ said the Press to trainer Kevin Ryan, who replied: ‘He’s been exceptional at home, and will improve a lot for this.’ Blaine is a half-brother to Bogart, Two-Year-Old Trophy winner in the North.
Now Blaine’s connections will choose between that race at Redcar on October 6 and the Middle Park at Newmarket a week later.
FLYING OFFICER A Derby horse for Gosden, though in fact a brother to the Leger winner Lucarno and, therefore, to Great Voltigeur winner Thought Worthy.
Entered in the Racing Post Trophy, he landed a gamble at Sandown last week, beating several well-bred types and looking the part of equine aristocrat of the future.
HAMELIN Another likely to make his debut over a mile, another Derby entry and another bred along Leger lines: his dam, Love Divine, produced the winner of the Doncaster Classic, Sixties Icon, and Hamelin (trained Sir Henry Cecil) is a full brother by Cape Cross to Native Ruler, placed in two Group 2 races.
MARS It’s the trend for Ballydoyle to educated its smart but backward juveniles on the Polytrack at Dundalk. Mars and Sir Walter Scott both won there on their first – and only – outing.
I slipped Mars into my copy as my Derby horse, after his so-fluent four-lengths-plus romp at Dundalk in July. The second has run and won since, and Mars will surely be in the ascendancy in the Dewhurst or Racing Post Trophy.
SIR WALTER SCOTT Also ‘entered everywhere’ – Royal Lodge, Racing Post Trophy, Dewhurst – Sir Walter Scott, whose dam produced the Irish Derby winner Frozen Fire, scored for his sire Galileo at Dundalk earlier this month.
The trade paper reports in its online form that ‘Scottie’ showed a superb attitude, led at two different stages of the race, and looks made for a mile and middle distances next season.
TAAYEL The Mill Reef at Newbury on Saturday beckons for another potential John Gosden star, a winner ‘with the minimum of fuss’ first time out at Yarmouth in August.
TORONADO My first nominated two-year-old to follow in this column. And he’s climbed the ladder, as I hoped, winning a Listed for me with ease at Ascot in July, then entering the Guineas betting by overpowering one of the top rated juveniles seen so far in Dundonnell.
Dawn Approach is, of course, leading the ratings, with a figure 2lb higher than Camelot achieved last year, after making it five from five on Saturday. Here comes the hype. Dewhurst next stop. Likely unbackable. Same old, same old.
Hoofnote: Last time I published my horses-to-follow list my naps sequence was 11111303 and continued scoring. An omen I hope.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 7.4pts win MEDICOE and 3.7pts win (stakes saver) CLAIM (3.00 Yarmouth)
BET 5.2pts win THREE STREETS (3.20 Folkestone)
LAY 10pts SUEGIOO (4.10 Thirsk)
LAY 10pts SELF EMPLOYED (5.10 Thirsk)
BET 1.4pts win and place on each MISS TOPSY TURVEY and COCKNEY SPARROW (5.30 Yarmouth)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 3 x 5pts win doubles and 1pt win treble SKY GARDEN (2.30 Yarmouth), THREE STREETS (3.20 Folkestone) and WILLIE WAG TAIL (nap, 5.00 Yarmouth)
* Daqman’s selections are backed to win 20 points (unless otherwise stated in Daq Multiples) so, if you divide 20 by his stake, you know the Betdaq offer taken at the time of writing.
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