THE DAQMAN NAP NOW 57 POINTS UP FOR THE SEASON: Daqman landed two winning bets from three selections yesterday and was unfortunate that his third tip didn’t run his race, and was behind throughout. His nap, Invitational (WON 4-5), took his daily best bets to 57 points in profit since the end of the Flat season. Break The Silence (WON 2-1) gave him a profit of 17.80 on the day.
HE’S 244 POINTS CLEAR OF PRICEWISE (SCORES 23:11): Today Daqman does battle with Pricewise 244 points clear of his arch rival, with the returns score 23-11. Bets in the 1.50, 2.25 and 3.00 Sandown, and the 2.05 Wincanton, see them head to head in their value challenge.
🔹 MORE POWER TO THE FAVOURITE
🔹 VALUE WOLVES BACK MOLINEAUX
🔹 HANG! THIS COULD BE ANYTHING
🔹 BURTONS READY TO BOUNCE BACK
🔹 BACK AND LAY 7.1 TOTTERDOWN
MORE POWER TO THE FAVOURITE
1.50 Sandown Last year’s sole chasing success for Delire D’Estruval came here in March when he beat two maidens, Volt Face and Risk And Roll. They are still maidens.
Locker Room Talk was allowed an easy lead at Taunton and it will be interesting to see where he is, and how he copes, when he faces the final climb on today’s course.
Darebin might try to show him how. He made every yard in this race last year, but was getting lumps of weight from three opponents. The second horse came in with an overreach; the third had lost a shoe!
That win is isolated in his form at Sandown (33140233) which suggests that he loves the course but lacks a finish and, though he is entitled to close down Johnbb, on their first and third, also over today’s CD at Sandown last month, Johnbb is the improver.
He foiled a hat-trick bid by an older horse for that CD win at Sandown last month, and I rely on Robbie Power to get some more juice out of him. Deserves to be favourite.
VALUE WOLVES BACK MOLINEAUX
2.05 Wincanton Molineaux, a BETDAQ value 4.6 offer this morning, was a winner at this meeting a year ago (off 4lb higher), making him 2411 on his home track.
With the stable jockey at Sandown for Fiddlerontheroof and Eldorado Allen, Molineaux is one of three rides entrusted by Colin Tizzard to Jonjo O’Neill Jr. Punters please note that Oxford-based John O’Neill rides in the 2.40 against Jonjo O’Neill Jr.
The favourite in this, Saintemilion, has been placed twice over fences here, including on Boxing Day, his best yet in three runs since a wind op. He has to improve a modest overall score of 1-7.
Ar Mest beat a poor lot over hurdles last January (overall form of the second horse is 1-17, the third 0-18). He unseated rider on his chasing debut and looked sluggish in a confidence booster back over hurdles at Fontwell.
Admirals Secret won here at Wincanton second run back in the winter of 2018, and was second at Taunton to Locker Room Talk (see 1.50 Sandown). Prelude to another second-run success?
Could be, but the snag is that, sandwiched in between his best form, are two races when he refused to race, so his 7.0 offers on BETDAQ this morning are understandable.
HANG! THIS COULD BE ANYTHING
2.25 Sandown (Tolworth Hurdle) Colin Tizzard (Fiddlerontheroof) has won this twice in the last three seasons, taking over the race from Nicky Henderson (four wins out of five 2011-15).
Fiddlerontheroof, runner-up in the Persian War to subsequent Challow winner, Thyme Hill, made all on very soft ground on this Sandown course a month back.
Henderson’s hope, Son Of Camas, beat nothing well at Newbury but the stable can wheel them out of the nursery straight into motorway traffic and find the necessary.
Hang In There has better credentials. He made virtually all when slamming five-in-a-row Pacify at Cheltenham on the soft. The handicapper thinks that’s worth 5lb more than ‘Fiddler’, so 4.3 on BETDAQ was value over 3.3 the favourite.
Hang In There could be anything. Bred to go round twice, by four-time Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats out of a mare by Cadoudal, the sire of Long Run and Big Buck’s.
Jeremys Flame has already been beaten by a Henderson hurdler, and Silver Hallmark is a winner in lower grade, so must find plenty more.
BURTONS READY TO BOUNCE BACK
3.00 Sandown (Veterans Handicap Chase) Venetia Williams had an amazing near-50% strike rate up to mid-December but has now saddled 22 losers in a sequence broken only by success in a two-runner race.
She will try to bounce back here through Burtons Well. Victory would be a huge tribute to Venetia’s ‘great warrior’ Houblon des Obeaux, who took this last year but died of a heart attack on today’s course a month ago.
Burtons Well, often troubled with ‘a leg’, has had very little racing for a veteran: he’s an 11-year-old who’s run 11 times!
He has to have long breaks between races and has a big chance here on his defeat of Theatre Guide (3rd) and On Tour (5th) at Aintree in November.
Theatre Guide and On Tour were the placed horses behind Houblon des Obeaux in today’s race a year ago.
On Tour now has Richard Johnson in the saddle and a first-time visor in revised ratings which could wipe out the neck advantage held by Vieux Lion Rouge at Chepstow in October. I took 12.0 On Tour and 10.5 Burtons Well.
Jepeck is 1-12 over fences, and Dark Flame – second to Houblon Des Obeaux over today’s CD in November – is also hard to win with (1-7 over fences). King’s Odyssey has scored just the once in almost four years.
Horatio Hornblower, twice placed (2-2, in fact) over today’s Sandown CD, has won his last two starts but has 10lb more to carry here in a better race.
Smooth Stepper was back to form, runner-up on the last day. He loves the mud and has twice won next time after a reappearance second.
BACK AND LAY 7.1 TOTTERDOWN
3.35 Sandown Nicky Henderson, winner of this 2m handicap hurdle twice in the last three seasons, has two rounds of ammunition: Gunnery and Mill Green, both older than the age trending for this.
Young blood, so often to the fore (60% success for horses of five and six), is in short supply today. Just two.
Eldorado Allen got no further than the first at Aintree after the grey scored here at Sandown on his debut, whereas Smarty Wild came unstuck (when four out of five), also at Sandown, on the last day.
Or maybe that should be ‘stuck’. He was unable to quicken on the heavy ground, as favourite, raised two grades in class.
Gunnery gets a penalty for dotting up at Doncaster (class 4) but has twice before failed to step up in grade, both over hurdles and on the Flat.
Mill Green, fourth in the (2m 4f) NH Novices’ Final at Sandown in March, and with a similar performance at Cheltenham in April, drops back to the minimum now.
Totterdown ‘ran too free’ when a 10-lengths winner at Sandown (heavy) in November and, after 55 days off, is likely to be in the same mood round the tight Esher turns again today.
He is 131 at Sandown, still standing so maybe he is one on which to take a position early at 7.1 on BETDAQ, so you can lay against him if he goes ridiculously short in running.
In truth, the winner is very hard to find, with little more than four points separating the five at the front of the market but – BETDAQ to the rescue – the entire field adds up to only 105%, so I think I’ll back both Hendersons. I’ve opposed him so far today.
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.50 Sandown (win 20)
BET 11.5pts win JOHNBB
2.05 Wincanton (win 20)
BET 5.5pts win MOLINEAUX
2.25 Sandown (win 30)
BET 10pts win (nap) HANG IN THERE
3.00 Sandown (win 50 bull’s-eye bets on both)
BET 5.25pts win BURTONS WELL
BET 4.55pts win ON TOUR
3.35 Sandown (each to win 20)
BET 5.5pts win GUNNERY
BET 2.75pts win MILL GREEN
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