KEMPTON CASH ‘KICK BACK’ FROM HANAGAN: Daqman rates two rides for champion Paul Hanagan on the Betdaq-sponsored card at Kempton Park tonight at 9.8 and 9.0. Surely, says our man, there’ll be some cash kickback from one of those.
MASSIVE 25-HORSE CHAMPIONSHIP DUEL: Silvestre De Sousa has 14 rides to try to claw back an eight-winner deficit in the title race but Hanagan looks more than a match for him at the same two meetings, Nottingham and then on to Kempton.
It’s all or nothing for Silvestre De Sousa. Eight behind, and with eight rides on Betdaq night at Kempton Park, De Sousa needs a Frankie Dettori through-the-card act there.
That’s if there’s no change after he duels with the champion Paul Hanagan at Nottingham this afternoon on a day his dreams will end if he can’t claw back a substantial amount of the deficit. The pair are aboard no fewer than 25 horses: De Sousa 14, Hanagan 11.
De Sousa has a mountain in front of him but even his coincidence bet, Teide Peak – Spain’s highest, in Tenerife – faces a climbdown involving Hanagan on Anomaly (2.00), well bred for this soft-ground maiden, by Pivotal, well drawn and following a good debut run.
I turned to my Daq this morning, expecting to see Anomaly around 2-1 but not so. The one they want is Cubanita, also bred for the soft, by Selkirk, and also with a good run first time, this one perhaps even more significant, since the debut was in a race the Ralph Beckett stable won with Oaks heroine Look Here.
Normally, you’d steer clear of shortish odds in 17-runner maidens but, with draw, ground and recent potential all in favour of this pair, I shall fully expect one of them to score.
With an obvious love of a soft surface, Smart Step (3.05) can continue her sequence for De Sousa, despite a rise of a stone for her two wins; the Montjeu filly is exploiting her touch of class.
4.40 Kempton (Free Entry For Betdaq Members, Division 1) First-time-handicappers, Night Flash (Hanagan), Swift Cat and Compton Rainbow – now hooded – catch the eye in this nursery.
On the grounds that you rarely get 9.8 about Hanagan, I shall risk a pound on Night Flash, with the plum number-one stall and the James Given yard having ‘supplied’ one on the course for Hanagan recently (Veroon 12 days ago).
5.10 Kempton (Free Entry For Betdaq Members, Division 2) Given and Hanagan were in the same situation at Nottingham a week earlier when Bailey’s Over Ice lost out in her first nursery because of a bad start.
She deserves another chance in this weaker second leg. Courtesy Call (De Sousa) moved to the front of the market on Betdaq this morning and must be the stakes saver but I can’t resist ‘Bailey’s’ as another Hanagan at 9.0. There’s surely some cash kickback in two 9.0 Hanagan rides!
5.40 Kempton (Back And Lay At betdaq.com Handicap) If Cut The Cackle’s third last time out heralds a return to anything like his old form, he is proverbially ‘thrown in’ here off 54, which is 16lb lower than his last AW win.
Bateleur is reliable for a place but hard to win with; Young Simon returns to the CD of his only success; and Memphis Man (De Sousa) has his 31st run of the year
6.10 Kempton (Betdaq Multiples/British Stallion Studs Maiden Stakes) Do those who name these horses follow the trends in the language? I suppose, since his sire was Redback, the naming of the colt Bareback is legit.
This should go to Hanagan on Intuition, who didn’t like the heavy ground at Haydock when well backed last time.
Poker Hospital was hampered when making his move at Windsor but, with form figures of 04333, it may be that he doesn’t make his own luck. I’m tempted to a double whammy.
6.40 Kempton (Betdaq Mobile Apps Floodlit Listed Stakes) A cracking little Listed, the best race all day, with £30,000 guaranteed. No wonder the big yards have been lured under the floodlights.
De Sousa’s mount, Prince Bishop, has shown his form on turf on the soft; Woolfall Treasure and Precision Break probably need a another half-mile these days, and the Crocus Rose stable – Harry Dunlop’s – is on the ‘cold’ list with 38 losers in 83 days.
You can never ignore James Fanshawe and certainly not Spensley at this track (four runs, four wins) but class will out and Laaheb, followed by Parlour Games, would make a procession of this, if at their best.
As a hold-up horse, Parlour Games (Hanagan), who was hot in the summer, may find it hard to get on terms with van runner, Laaheb.
In fact, Laaheb, winner of two Group-3s and two Listeds, made every yard of this 1m 4f last time he appeared at Kempton. And that was one of the Group-3 wins, so he’s keeping lesser company here.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 6pts win ANOMALY and 2.5pts win (stakes saver) CUBANITA (2.00 Nottingham)
BET 3.6pts win SMART STEP (3.05 Nottingham)
BET 2.2pts win NIGHT FLASH (4.40 Kempton)
BET 2.5pts win BAILEY’S OVER ICE and 0.6pts win (stakes saver) COURTESY CALL (5.10 Kempton)
DOUBLE WHAMMY: LAY to win 10pts POKER HOSPITAL and 7.6pts win INTUITION (6.10 Kempton)
BANKER: 20pts win LAAHEB (6.40 Kempton)
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