BOB’S YOUR UNCLE AT 39.0 ON BETDAQ: Daqman analyses the four Betdaq-sponsored races at Kempton Park this evening but not before a ‘bob’ on a massive outsider on the classy card at Doncaster.
It was an absolute lay-down. Those laying the duck-egg stables of Paul Nicholls, Philip Hobbs and Nigel Twiston-Davies had 10 straight winning bets yesterday from the illustrious swans of steeplechase training who are now their golden geese.
These three, among the top seven yards in the country, have now totted up a humiliating 2-92 in the last 15 days, with Cheltenham just around the corner.
Nicholls (with 30 winners), Hobbs (15) and Twiston-Davies (13) are also among the top seven leading trainers for the Festival, behind Nicky Henderson (39), who needs one more to equal the 40-wins feat of the great Fulke Walwyn.
Nicholls gives it a rest today but there are 10 more from Hobbsy and ‘Twiston’ which – with another blank sheet – could take their tally of losers to dead on the 100 mark, with hardly enough back to pay for a tank full of petrol.
It’s a real silly season with the leading in-form trainers David C Griffiths (who?) and Eric Wheeler, according to the trade paper, and with only six yards from around 250 with runners today having had more than four winners in the last fortnight.
Light years ahead of the pack over the sticks are Henderson (14 wins, eight places), Don McCain (seven wins, seven places) and Alan King (six wins, 13 places). All three have runners on a cracking card at Doncaster, with Kingy’s Ardlui my nap.
Trappy novices, beginners, a hunter and a bumper tempt me towards a tilt at the the handicap, which had a 28-1 winner last year.
Assuming Allthekingshorses can’t get Hobbsy together again – and that Imperial Circus and Hunters Lodge are also lays of the day – I’m choosing one of only two to have won over the distance in open handicaps.
Bob N’ You is 39.0 on Betdaq this morning, massive offers when you consider his last hurdles run was third off 5lb higher in a Grade 3 at Aintree. He’s been off for a while and is a glass horse but goes well fresh and may have been ‘got up’ for the race.
5.30 Kempton Park (Free Entry For Betdaq Members Handicap) Estonia, third in the race last year off 62, has 12lb more, but Michael Squance and Luke Morris are 2-3 in races of this type on this course.
However, he was only fifth over CD a week ago when the 1-2-3 was Triple Dream, Island Legend and Captain Scooby. Triple Dream is now worse off with the placed horses, and Captain Scooby has won on turf off a mark 11lb higher, if you count Charles Eddery’s claim, whereas Triple Dream has never scored off today’s 79.
With Island Legend, Lucky Art and Novabridge all potentially front-runners, Captain Scooby should have the fast pace he needs to come and catch the leaders from behind and I took 5.9 on Betdaq this morning.
6.00 Kempton Park (Betdaq Multiples Handicap) When Hurricane Spirit won a Betdaq-sponsored race over CD in November, it was the last time Steve Drowne had a winner here.
Though one of our top journeyman jockeys, Steve has gone 34 rides in 91 days without troubling the Kempton judge.
The placed horses that day, Understory and Lisahane Bog, both try again now and the weights more or less force a triple dead-heat, with all three having won over CD within two or three pounds of their mark today.
Understory was only sixth in this race last year and was only one place better, two lengths behind Hurricane Hymnbook, in a CD race in December. However, the handicapper has again had his say, and they are set to dead-heat on that running.
He’s also more or less leveled out John Louis and Hurricane Hymnbook on their one-two at Lingfield late last month. My answer to this four-way photo is to blow them all out.
I’ll take smart boy Darren Egan on a horse that’s won in higher grade and, whereas the others have been fighting each other on and off for weeks, he is second run back after a seven-month holiday. Edgewater is the name, at 5.7, as I write.
6.30 Kempton Park (Back Or Lay At betdaq.com Claiming Stakes) Marajaa has been first and second in his last two Kempton claimers, and the win was over today’s 7f, but you have to go back to 2010 for the CD successes of Last Sovereign and Mambo Spirit.
Whitechapel, only ride of the evening for David Probert, has won over the trip but his course success was at a mile in a class-5 handicap.
Best Trip, Lone Devil and Last Sovereign have all led in the past, so there should be enough pace on for Whitechapel, a tasty 5.8 this morning.
7.00 Kempton Park (Betdaq Mobile Apps Median Auction Maiden Stakes) Three-year-olds have won this every time and Munificence went tips on in the Betdaq offers market this morning.
But Red Orator is from a much classier family of individuals, and is related to a Classic performer on the dam’s side. You takes your pick.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 12pts win (nap) ARDLUI (1.55 Doncaster)
BET 0.5pts win and place BOB ‘N’ YOU (4.05 Doncaster)
BET 4pts win CAPTAIN SCOOBY (5.30 Kempton Park)
BET 4.2pts win EDGEWATER (6.00 Kempton Park)
BET 4.1pts win WHITECHAPEL (6.30 Kempton Park)
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