WONDERFUL SUPERNAP ON THE DAY LONGCHAMP IS SAVED: Daqman landed supernap stakes on the Cologne Classic winner, Wonderful Moon, yesterday and declares him one to follow for his Fortune Cookies, with the German Derby in mind. He will revise Fortune Cookies after the Longchamp Monday trials. Racing continues in Germany again today and tomorrow (Berlin), and the French have the final go-ahead for Monday. Today’s headlines:
🔹 FRENCH BLOCK A FOOTBALL ’MENACE’
🔹 OVER THE MOON FOR GERMAN DERBY
🔹 SHE LET THE BULLET SHOOT PAST HER
Tomorrow: Hoppegarten (Berlin). Monday: Longchamp
FRENCH BLOCK A FOOTBALL ‘MENACE’
French racing kicked back last night. A strong football lobby tried to park the bus against the Monday return at Longchamp and two other tracks, but scored an own goal.
The French racing ‘paper’, Paris Turf, described complaints from football as ‘une menace’ (threat) to the resumption, though declarations had already been made from 1,069 entries for three meetings.
The president of Lyon football club declared it ‘drole’ that racing could return before football, setting off a new alarm, which had France Galop negotiating against a potential ‘marche arriere’ (backtrack) by the government.
But last night the return to racing at the three tracks – Compiegne, Longchamp and Toulouse – was given the green light by President Macron after a tense day of talks between racing and the Ministry of Agriculture. .
Meanwhile, England and Ireland are seemingly stuck with a June 29 date for a return, just as Germany celebrated two days of resumption; 24 races, firstly at Hannover and then with Group-class fare at Cologne.
Ireland’s HRI offered ‘cautious optimism’ that they could beat June 29 but I can reveal that Sunday’s statement by England Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will name the same date for resumption of behind-closed-doors sporting events in England.
OVER THE MOON FOR GERMAN DERBY
Wonderful! Is that all there is to be said about yesterday’s easy Cologne Classic winner? No, Wonderful Moon can also be described as green and inexperienced for much of the race.
Henk Grewe’s colt, the equivalent of a Dewhurst winner as a two-year-old, was hard for jockey Andrasch Starke to restrain and hold up for his run.
Yet, despite wasting a lot of nervous energy fighting for his head, the colt quickly went clear when given the office into the long Koln straight, racing smoothly along the rail as if to say ‘that’s all I wanted; it was just too boring in the company of those also-rans.’
Wonderful Moon, a son of Sea The Moon, now looks nailed on to give Starke his seventh German Derby winner. He paid me six for 10 on BETDAQ yesterday but his starting price was 2-5.
It was Starke, German champion jockey five times, who won the Arc de Triomphe (2011) and King George (2012) on the fabulous filly Danedream for Peter Schiergen.
Wonderful Moon’s trainer, Henk Grewe, who trains in Cologne, and is the current champion on the German scene, was completing a double on the day after Starke earlier won with Dicaprio.
The combo went on to a hat-trick in the big race of the day, the Group 2, when the two six-year-olds, Be My Sheriff (Grew-Starke) and Windstoss (Klug-Pecheur), beat the young bloods in the equivalent of the Hardwicke Stakes.
That’s both Group wins to the same team! Particularly disappointing was Ashrun (Wohler-Murzabayev), who was held up right out the back.
When asked to improve and sprint at them down the straight, Ashrun hung in on the rail and jinked against the whip under pressure, giving a clear message that he really didn’t want to know, at least with tactics like that.
SHE LET THE BULLET SHOOT PAST HER
She’s no angel! My Secrets Of Winner Finding series never had a better example than yesterday’s illustration of the bridesmaid who never lands the bouquet.
I was tempted to New Abby Angel at a ‘too big’ 13.0 on BETDAQ, assuming that her sequence of 16 seconds and thirds in England for Keith Dalgleish put her well in front of her German counterparts, as is usually the case.
It seemed a wise move to race her in Germany but the mistake was probably running her at Cologne, where there is a long unforgiving straight.
Angel’s kink surfaced. She was sent to win her race but managed to let one lead her. When that one faded, she hung fire until the winner, Power Bullet, shot by. Second again.
I must say I’d underestimated Power Bullet – sorry about that – but I’d also underestimated how determined New Abbey Angel would be to lose the race, so the form may amount to less than it seems.
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.
