9.4 NAP FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR: Daqman goes for a nap-happy start to 2013 with a best bet selected at 9.4 on BETDAQ this morning..
LOOK OUT THIS WEEK: Later in the week, there’s Daqman’s Welsh National preview, results from 2012 and forward-looking horses to follow for 2013.
Racing should never again start the New Year as badly as today. It doesn’t take much imagination to assume the worst about the weather and plan something special on AW.
As it is, we’ve got the appropriately named Make It More Exciting Handicap Hurdle at Musselburgh (Edinburgh), and the Billy Williams Memorial at Exeter.
No offence to Billy (Ian Williams’ dad). Great man. I spent a memorable weekend with the Devon trainer and his owners at Ostend one year, way back when.
Though our horse didn’t win, Billy was his usual characterful self, and yours truly performed well at the bar, discovering the strength of real Belgian beer.
The weekend had a shaky start with one winning bet I didn’t really want to get right: ‘I think the starboard engine has stopped!’ said I, just after take-off. Faced with jeers all round, I nervously bet several ‘quid’. And it had. Return to base.
On the way home, our flight performed badly again; or was it good old British Rail who let us down. The plane was schedule to arrive at Folkestone a few minutes AFTER the London train. How daft can you get!
We had two hours to wait for another ‘rattler’ and that got my journalistic goat.. I wrote a piece in one of the papers which resulted in a change of timetable. Happy days.
My New Year’s Resolution is to find more and more winners in the future, and I’ll be looking at my results in 2012 to give you an idea of how you should stake and where my winners come from.
But, back to today’s bread-and-butter fare, I do wish the sport’s planners would think of racing’s image beyond how jockeys wave their whips or whether you’ve got a tie on in Members.
A poor day’s racing today is a PR opportunity missed. It’s ironic in the extreme to have to tell the management of a sport that’s all about winning that they have to learn to take a lead!
Catterick Despite his weight burden, Valleyofmilan (1.45) took over as favourite on BETDAQ early doors, with trainer Don McCain and jockey Henry Brooke on a 60% strike rate when they get together.
They have another good chance later in the day with Dungeel (3.30), likely to be a short price. I shall back Valley of Milan in the usual way, with a stakes saver on Dungeel.
Exeter In the Billy Williams race, Ripoff (2.05) has every chance of getting off the mark, now stepped up in trip.
Boomtown has been hiked the ‘stopper’ of 15lb, Storm Alert has never reached the frame on a right-handed track, the maiden Some Secret has been off more than a year, and Magical Island is 0-14.
Fakenham Perhaps the best collection of quality horses today is in the the maiden hurdle (1.20)! Which one will adapt to the ‘sticks’?
Tony McCoy is at the meeting to ride Edmaaj, which cost 120,000gns to go jumping, but – as a middle distance performer on the Flat – may need further than today’s minimum 2m.
The Tiger is another classy middle-distance horse from the Flat, and Chabal had Classic aspirations (favourite for the Dante in his year). There were only 1.85 points between the three on BETDAQ this morning.
But I decided to go grey (that’s the colour of the horse not 50 shades!), with Watered Silk, far too big at 9.4, as a four-time winner for Marcus Tregoning who likes an easy surface.
There’s a class-3 handicap (2.30), so we should have a tilt at that: I maintain my opinion that horses perform inconsistently below this level, reducing the punters’ chances..
However, when you look at this race, you find the runners are class-4 level. Likearollingstone did well in the autumn, his run stopped only by the switch to AW: offers of 7.8 look good.
Musselburgh The best card of the day by a long chalk, and the best strike rate: you can’t beat 100% from the pairing of Michael Smith and Danny Cook, and Imperial Vic, looking for a hat-trick, could have been let off lightly in his first handicap. Save on Monetary Fund.
In the Happy New Year Handicap Chase (2.15), I’ll take last year’s winner, Definite Appeal, ‘massive’ at 9.6, returning from a trip too far (4m at Kelso).
Class race of the day is the handicap hurdle (2.45), in which Swing Bowler returns to action a hot favourite this morning.
The one I like is Call Back, dropping down from Listed level (ground too soft). The drying day could see him return to the form of his all-the-way win at Cartmel: 9.4 on BETDAQ this morning was ‘wrong.’
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 2.3pts win WATERED SILK (1.20 Fakenham)
BET 7.8pts win IMPERIAL VIC and 1.8pts win (stakes saver) MONETARY FUND (1.40 Musselburgh)
BET 7pts win VALLEYOFMILAN (1.45 Catterick) and 5pts win (stakes saver) DUNGEEL (3.30 Catterick)
BET 6pts win RIPOFF (2.05 Exeter)
BET 2.3pts win and place DEFINITE APPEAL (2.15 Musselburgh)
BET 3pts win LIKEAROLLINGSTONE (2.30 Fakenham)
BET 2.3pts win (nap) CALL BACK (2.45 Musselburgh)
* Daqman’s bets today are all staked to win 20 points at the offers available at the time of selection (savers are the exception: they are backed to cover the stake on the main bet).
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.
