THE STORY SO FAR: MAY MAGIC TIPPING FROM DAQMAN Daqman, who promised at least 70 value winners against Pricewise this Flat season, already leads 21-9 and is 256 points ahead to level stakes, thanks to a winning streak in May, which includes:
WON 16-1 POETIC FLARE 2,000 Guineas (BETDAQ 18.5)
WON 14-1 MR LUPTON York (BETDAQ 15.5)
WON 11-1 RIVER NYMPH Victoria Cup (BETDAQ 14.5)
WON 10-1 MOTHER EARTH 1,000 Guineas
WON 11-2 COPPER KNIGHT York (BETDAQ 8.6)
WON 5-1 HURRICANE LANE Dante Stakes (BETDAQ 8.2)
LONG SHOTS OR SHORT PRICES, DAQMAN WINS AGAIN: If you prefer shorter prices and bigger stakes on a limited number of bets, here’s his 83% strike rate from five winning SUPERNAPS out of six (52.84 profit) since the Flat started:
WON 6-5 ARMORY
WON 4-7 HONEYSUCKLE
WON 4-7 STRADIVARIUS
WON 4-5 FRODON
WON 1-2 BROOME
QUALITY RACING THIS WEEKEND:
TODAY: The London Gold Cup and the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.
TOMORROW: the French 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas at Longchamp. Headlines today:
GREYSTOKE THE GOLD CUP TARZAN
LONE SHARK VALUE AT BETDAQ 35.0
PALACE PIER A LOCKINGE SUPERNAP
GREYSTOKE THE GOLD CUP TARZAN
It’s all over for Daqman in 35 minutes today! He’s swinging through the threes with BETDAQ EXCHANGE BETTING at 35.0, 15.0, 14.5, 13.0, right down to 1.69 and right back up to 50.0, all running between 3.00 and 3.35 at Newbury with visits in between to Newmarket and Thirsk.
⭕ 3.00 Newbury (London Gold Cup): The last running of this in 2019 saw Headman come thundering down the middle of the track on the wide outside of the pack.
He proved to be a Group horse in a handicap, capable of defying the draw, which had previously produced no fewer than six out of weight winners from stalls 1, 2, 3 along the rails!
In the one stall today is Greystoke, a Sixties Icon who won’t fail for lack of stamina. Progressing through the ranks yet carrying a featherweight.
Just a worry that he’s been kept away from an easy surface so far but a top professional jockey moves into the saddle to complete the hat-trick.
In stall 2 is another lightweight, Oz Legend, who has a lot of work to do, rated 2lb in front of Greystoke, though he’s unexposed after just three runs. Yet another from the foot of the handicap, Dejame Paso, is in stall 3.
Surely one of the three, towed along by King Frankel (gate 4), must go close. Or is there that ‘Group horse in a handicap?’
Bay Bridge is in the ‘Ascot Derby’ King Edward V11 Stakes and Dubawi Sands is coming on nicely.
But another outsider I like down the middle of the track is River Alwen, who has scored with cut in the ground and was a nice winner at Newmarket.
Before that, he looked in need of the race when fourth over the CD here at Newbury first run back behind the Dante winner, Hurricane Lane, and the Dee Stakes runner-up, Maximal.
BETDAQ value 15.0 Greystoke, 14.5 River Alwen
LONE SHARK VALUE AT BETDAQ 35.0
⭕ 3.15 Newmarket Only one winner in the decade with a double-figure draw but an 80% strike-rate for horses in stalls 5, 6, 7, 8, so you want to be a few lengths off the rail. That gives us Mr Trick, Bickerstaffe, First Folio and Shark Two One.
Mr Trick is still a maiden but wasn’t beaten far on today’s course (7f, soft) in the autumn, when giving weight to the winner, Wobwobwob, who won again at York on Wednesday.
Bickerstaffe was third over the CD on May Day to a horse who had beaten Jumby here at the Craven Meeting. The line to form says he is no match for Jumby, Perotto or Seven Brothers, and his stable is out of form (1-25).
First Folio looked very useful at Yarmouth but was losing his maiden tag that day on firm ground after five consecutive defeats on an easier surface.
I can’t crab Shark Two One. Winner of a big Sales race at the Curragh, and not disgraced at Listed level, he’s had a run back, and trainer Richard Fahey was bang on with Mr Lupton at York, despite his huge odds.
Paul Hanagan misses the Shark ride for little fish at Thirsk today, where he has a ‘spare’ for Andrew Balding on Auriferous (3.20), a Golden Horn out of a mare by soft-ground sire Selkirk. Has been begging for the step up to today’s trip, and I took 2.76
Back to the Newmarket race, Seven Brothers is 3-4, failing only in the Gimcrack, and has won on both soft and firm.
Just Frank is high in the handicap and Barneys Bay is hiked for back-to-back success. Smeaton’s Light looked good last time but has a high draw and has won only on firm going. Jadwal can’t be overlooked but needs to settle.
BETDAQ value 13.0 Seven Brothers, 35.0 Shark Two One
PALACE PIER A LOCKINGE SUPERNAP
⭕ 3.35 Newbury (Lockinge Stakes, Group 1): Hard to oppose Palace Pier, who is rated half a stone in front of anything else in a race which has been won by the previous year’s 2,000 Guineas winners, Frankel (2012) and Night Of Thunder (2015).
Palace Pier, 2020 St James’s Palace Stakes hero with cut in the ground, prepped for this with a Sandown Mile cruise, his victims including Happy Power (third).
At Royal Ascot this time around, he can choose between the Queen Anne (1m) and the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (1m 2f) before taking in the Eclipse.
The Ballydoyle hope, Lope Y Fernandez, doesn’t want too much rain. He has a long history in Group 1 but all placed without winning – Irish 2,000, Prix Jean Prat and Breeders Cup Mile – and has only a Group-3 victory to his name.
Such as Top Rank and My Oberon are also Group-3 winners who still have the chance to improve. Lady Bowthorpe has just won a grade higher in her own sex but this is a step up where she faces the males.
Safe Voyage (twice) and Century Dream (once) have also won at Group-2 level but are now past their sell-by dates on any trading platform, though Queen Anne winner in 2019 Lord Glitters, who added another Group 1 at Meydan in March, belies his years.
Daqman’s 1-2-3: Bred, and built, as if he will have a better year is Lord Campari, and he could give you a bit of fun for a place if you don’t want to dig deep into your wallet and back an odds-on shot.
My order-in at BETDAQ offers is: 1.69 Palace Pier, 7.2 Lope Y Fernandez, 50.0 Lord Campari.
DAQMAN’S BETS
3.00 Newbury (win 50 bull’s-eye bets)
BET 3.75pts win RIVER ALWEN
BET 3.5pts win GREYSTOKE
(Stakes saver to win 10: 3pts win BAY BRIDGE)
3.10 Thirsk (win 10)
BET 5.5pts win AURIFEROUS
3.15 Newmarket (win 50 bull’s-eye bets, win 10 place)
BET 4pts win SEVEN BROTHERS
BET 1.3pts win and 1.7pts place SHARK TWO ONE
(Stakes saver to win 10: 3pts win JUMBY)
3.35 Newbury (supernap)
BET 20pts win PALACE PIER
What are points? Points facilitate a staking plan, which is the secret to creating profit. One point is whatever you choose: a pound, a euro, or whatever ….
Start with a bank and decide how much you can afford to lose over a period of time, and determine the size of your bets accordingly. Daqman makes this variation every day.
