FOUR ACES? OR JUST PICTURE CARDS: Daqman picks out four horses from recent trial races which have gone into his notebook, all with pretensions to greatness. But just how good are they?
DANCING TO DAQ VALUE: Daqman fancies it’s a Daq Multiples day, with the hub of his bets Dancing Daffodil at Towcester. Tomorrow has Betdaq evening racing at Kempton, and Daqman returns to the subject of Daq Value later in the week.
They used to say that only horses with smart names win big races. Hyperion, Eclipse, Sea Bird. Then along came Vakil-ul-Mulk and we had to brush up on our Persian. Not long after that, Ela-Mana-Mou had us breaking plates in the local Greek restaurant.
Punters loved the way Tintinabulum tripped off the tongue but few ‘down the betting shop’ sniggered: they didn’t know that the British Museum bronze is a winged phallus of Roman times.
The more modern tongue-twister was the Gaelic-named National Hunt horse, Toirdealbhach (pronounced ‘turlough’, and now generally anglicised as ‘Terence’).
Toirdealbhach is the sort of name that makes conversions to the Betdaq faith: I mean, can you imagine the punters in your local shop writing that on a betting-slip!
Now we have Arvika Ligeonniere. I’ve got as far as ‘Arvika, a district of Sweden’. Full meaning on a postcard please to ‘Will we really have a champion chaser of this name?’ c/o Weatherbys.
ARVIKA LIGEONNIERE The debate will rage until Christmas (his next run), albeit somewhat subdued in its enunciation by the ‘moniker’ of this winner of the Drinmore at the weekend.
What debate? Did Ruby Walsh have them all asleep, as he raced 30 lengths clear at one stage, or was this a Frankel-type performance in that Ruby knew what was under him, that he was the proverbial machine, still too keen and needing to be let go of?
My colleague Shamrock has already debated, complete with quotes from trainer Willie Mullins (see Monday archive). My interpretations are:
a) Mullins knew this one was something special so kept him back a year, even for ‘a little problem,’ knowing that the horse would ‘fly’ first time on a racecourse and he needed strengthening up for that day b) that it wasn’t just the manner of his victory but his superb jumping ability c) that Mullins’ confidence that 2m would be no problem and 3m would go on the agenda ‘given a bit of time’ suggests that he fancies he can pick and choose Cheltenham gold this year and next.
COUNTRYWIDE FLAME There’s another debate raging here (debates always ‘rage’, as Flann O’Brien loved to tell us): did this horse become the first four-year-old winner of the Fighting Fifth since 1985 because everything else needed the race or notably didn’t act on the heavy ground?
The flop, Cinders And Ashes, was in my horses-to-follow list and maybe there were genuine excuses but my ear-to-the-ground was positively vibrating with the confidence that emanated from Yorkshire-based John Quinn. I switched horses and ‘Flame’ absolutely flew in.
Results in the mud can be misleading. Equally, they can be ignored by punters for that reason and, as a result, the offers and odds continue ‘big.’
The Cesarewitch runner-up has been odds-against for nine of his 10 wins, and the answer to the debate for me is this: would you lay the 11-4 of his Fighting Fifth success that he can’t beat Cinders And Ashes again?
EASTER DAY There’s no debate here: he’s hardly been noticed, and that’s more rubbing of hands from me about future prices. This one won only a novice hurdle (class 2) at Ascot in November but I can’t forget the excited look on Paul Nicholls face in the stands at evidence of real power, willingness and potential in a young horse.
Once upon a time (which is how all the best stories begin), a very good racereader told me: ‘Look for a horse who surges into contention, then finds another gear and quickens away, particularly if there’s give in the ground. Not many can do that.’ Easter Day did.
MONKSLAND All the accolades went to Zaidpour after his victory in the Hattons Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday but I was mighty pleased with one of my horses to follow, Monksland.
Zaidpour had already won three Grade-2 races and had run second to both A Thousand Stars and Hurricane Fly, but the year-younger Monksland was emerging from novice class (he’d won one Grade 2 but beat another novice in second).
In finishing runner-up on Sunday, Monksland split a 162-rated (Zaidpour) and a 157 (Voler La Vedette), with the distances two-and-a-half lengths and one and a half, and he could be hiked by a stone on that form at face value.
It depends what the handicapper thinks of Voler La Vedette’s below-par performance but, remember, she was receiving 7lb mares’ allowance.
Voler La Vedette ‘made a noise’ at the second last as if she had a problem, and the time was slow, though, as Raceform says, this was 2m 4f and Monksland has had the speed to win at 2m, and is ‘interesting.
DAQMAN’S BETS
DAQ MULTIPLES: 10pts win on each and 5pts win double DANCING DAFFODIL (nap, 2.50 Towcester) and STORMY GLAZ (4.10 Wolverhampton), plus 2pts win treble the same two with WESTWARD POINT (2.00 Folkestone)
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