TODAY: MULLINS THROWS THE DICE: A soggy Fairyhouse gets off the ground today, with a lukewarm Gold Cup which has half the field of six down to Willie Mullins. But Willie also throws six at Plumpton, after Dan Skelton extended his title lead yesterday.
TOMORROW: SECOND DAQMAN 1-2-3: The race continues at Plumpton on Bank Holiday Monday but for punters Fairyhouse goes to the fore with the Irish Grand National. Can Daqman do a 1-2-3 as he did at Aintree?
SKELTON EXTENDS HIS LEAD
WILLIE MULLINS has dispersed a squad of 26 today, 16 to keep the Fairyhouse prizemoney at home, and a throw of six at Plumpton, attacking the English trainers’ championship.
Dan Skelton pushed the title target out to close on £70k yesterday, with a winner, three seconds and a third. Standings:
Dan Skelton £3,211,982
Willie Mullins £3,142,810
Mullins biggest salvo is aimed at the Sussex Champion Hurdle today for £39,023 to the winner, then he has just Westport Cove in the Champion Chase tomorrow, worth £52,810 for the first horse home.
PLUMPTON – RACE BY RACE
Here’s a race by race guide to the Plumpton card:
⭕ 1.50 Plumpton (maiden hurdle, winner £8,986) Willie leaves this one out presenting an opportunity for LADY KLUCK (Skelton) but the first time hood will need to bring about an improvement based on her down the field efforts at Market Rasen this year. She ran well enough on good ground in a Ludlow bumper earlier in her career so improvement for the better ground is not ruled out,
The percentage call here has to be for the consistent Jasmine d’Airy who tends to be a bit gung-ho in front but has the form in the book.
⭕ 2.20 Plumpton (handicap chase, winner £8,714) Again, just a Skelton representative here with LE FAUVE who was thrown in at the deep end on his stable debut when third in a listed bumper at Aintree.
After such a promising start his hurdling efforts have to be considered disappointing and he starts chasing life today off a mark of 112.
The Charlie Longsdon trained Alien Storm has won both his chase starts here and made up for a bad effort at Musselburgh two starts ago with a better effort at Chepstow last time out.
⭕ 2.55 Plumpton (novices’ handicap hurdle, winner £8,714) DENZIL (Skelton) has spurned much better chances than this and has been unable to follow on from his stunning 55 length winning debut at Stratford with form figures since of 622032.
It looks tricky but I’ll risk a small bet on Ugo Bingo whose Fontwell form stacks up nicely here.
⭕ 3.30 Plumpton (handicap chase, winner £18,484) Runners at both ends of the Betdaq Betting Exchange market here for Skelton with MAJOR FORTUNE and HIDDEN HEROICS.
Whilst not a major fortune in the scheme of the numbers we are talking about, the £18k will be a very welcome addition to the Skelton tally but Major Fortune has been out of form and when he ran up an impressive sequence last season it all came on testing ground.
Might be best left to the locally trained Havaila who brings solid Newbury form into the race.
⭕ 4.05 Plumpton (Sussex Champion Hurdle, winner £39,023) The big race of the day and a mighty fine pot too. It’s weighted in Team Mullins favour with a quadruple assault via ABSURDE, DADDY LONG LEGS, TOUNSIVATOR and SIR GERHARD taking on Skelton’s KNICKERBOCKERGLORY and SHE’S A SAINT.
It’s hard to disagree with the market in favouring Absurde who was a very commendable third in the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival following his big pay day when fifth in the Melbourne Cup.
Last Melbourne Cup runner to run at Plumpton? Answers on a postcard ….
⭕ 4.40 Plumpton (handicap chase, winner £8,714) Skelton might be playing catch up on the day by now and has a solid chance with SHAKEYATAILFEATHER who is likely to head the market but no play for me with the 7lb rise for his easy Cheltenham win last week which didn’t come in the strongest of races by course standards.
⭕ 5.15 Plumpton (handicap hurdle, winner £15,843) This might see the day fizzle out in terms of the title race given that KING ALEXANDER (Mullins) and MOSTY SUNNY (Skelton) are both non runners.
Mullins has a shot to nothing with MR ESCOBAR but this looks tougher compared to the slim pickings picked up when he won at Sedgefield.
DAQMAN’S BETS on Betdaq Betting Exchange
2.20 Plumpton (win 10)
BET 2.5pts win ALIEN STORM
2.55 Plumpton (win 10)
BET 2.5pts win UGO BINGO
3.30 Plumpton (win 10)
BET 4.3pts win HAVAILA
★ 4.05 Plumpton (win 10, nap)
BET 2.9pts win ABSURDE
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