NAP WINS AT 9-4 IN LIVERPOOL HURDLE ONE-TWO: Daqman scored with his nap on the final day at Aintree with first and second in the Liverpool Hurdle, Solwhit (WON 9-4) and Holywell (2nd 9-1).
TWO LAYS UP OUT OF THREE: He landed his second winning lay out of three at the meeting when he opposed the ante-post favourite, On His Own (place lay, fell 8-1), in the Grand National, following Thursday’s lay, Silviniaco Conti, which lost to his selection, First Lieutenant.
SECOND IN THE NATIONAL AT 23.0: Daqman had the second and fifth from four bets on the National, all of them hugely bigger odds on BETDAQ: Cappa Bleu (2nd 12-1 from 23.0) and Rare Bob (5th 16-1 from 28.0).
The biggest winner of the Grand National yesterday was the race itself. The spectacle of the toughest sporting event in the world was retained without casualities and with a sense of professionalism throughout. The changes made did not mark it down but raise it up.
We can’t say for certain it will happen like that next time but we hope it will, and everything is in place for it to do so. It was a powerful palliative after the cloud that descended on our jumping championships at Cheltenham with the life-changing injury to J T McNamara.
The only ‘injured’ walking sadly away yesterday were the punters and the pundits: a few Northern correspondents tipped 66-1 Auroras Encore but then they would wouldn’t they.
This horse didn’t just win it, he scored with a renewed surge the like of which I have not seen, or felt, before in a race I’ve followed since the girl I loved as a teenager won my sweep in the school library (well she would, wouldn’t she).
Our red-brick grammar school had a former army drill-sergeant as history master, the sort of chap who could create silence just by walking into a room.
He walked in one year on my ‘book’ for the race, brazenly chalked up on the form-room blackboard. We were allowed to say ‘blackboard’ in those days but, of course, we were not allowed to bet.
The master walked calmly to my improvised ‘joint’, pointed at one of the horses on the board and produced an old sixpence from a pocket beneath his gown. ‘Put that on for me,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t want to miss it. After all, it’s the last time you do anything like that at this school.’ Nothing more was said because nothing more was needed.
I had not seen an Auroras Encore until this Saturday, nor have I witnessed such cool and skilled diplomacy since that day. But I was on a winner for life, thanks to true professionalism.
So I won’t complain that Saturday’s result didn’t tick the boxes of my race research. I’m just grateful that there is some bureaucracy alive and well in this country that doesn’t just tick boxes, blame computers and talk endless spin, as it pretends to know what it’s doing.
Maybe they should all have to live in the classroom of racing, where education is one day about glory, the next about tears; where every participant suffers and celebrates in turn: in the stable, in the saddle or in the betting arena. None more foolish than I; and the powerful play goes on.
It goes on this afternoon at Ascot where, in three months’ time, the Royal Meeting will bring us Black Caviar and Gold Cup champagne. Today it brings the Colts And Fillies’ Club Maiden Hurdle.
And up at Hexham, it brings Ryan Mania down to the earth, not with a bump we hope, but with his soul singing from his triumph on the National winner yet somehow strangely sad, unable to fully feel again the magic moments of Aintree success, hardly even able to hold them in his heart, so fleeting are they.
Such purple prose – I blush at it myself – is not complete without full mention of the professionalism of Sue and Harvey Smith in nursing, directing and training their winner, with horsemanship par excellence, and sustained hard work. Their triumph was ours: a masterclass and the ultimate ‘V’ sign to the Grand National’s critics.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 8.3pts win (nap) COURTESY CALL, and 0.5pts win and place FORRESTERS FOLLY (2.15 Ascot)
BET 2.8pts win AAZIF (3.25 Ascot)
BET 3.7pts win CONQUISTO (4.00 Ascot)
BET 4.3pts win ERNEST HEMINGWAY, 2.6pts win MONTEBELL and 5pts win (stakes saver) PARISH HALL (4.20 The Curragh)
BET 3.7pts win FRUITY O’ROONEY (4.40 Ascot)
HORSES TO FOLLOW: Yellow Rosebud (3.20 The Curragh)
* Daqman’s bets are staked to win 20 points unless otherwise stated, so you know the offer he took (20 divided by the stake).
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