TWO CHAMPIONS IN ONE RACE: Daqman started the Flat season with winners in Ireland and Dubai yesterday, and claims to have seen two champions in one race, a true Classic at Meydan.
WON 4-1 LAUGH A MINUTE (The Curragh)
WON evens EQUINOX (Meydan)
BETDAQ VALUE TODAY: Daqman checks out feature races at Carlisle and Exeter, among his bets two at 15.5 on BETDAQ.
EQUINOX STOPS THE CLOCKS
EXCEPTIONAL. As the clocks Spring forward in England, Flat-season time has not moved on from talking champions in the heady days of last autumn.
The hushed tones and high debate at the finish of the last turf season, about names like Flightline and Baaeed, is back in an instant for the start of this.
And I shall be surprised if the new superstar, Equinox, is not still the talking point this autumn.
To say that the Japanese four-year-old led all the way in yesterday’s near-£3m Sheema Classic and that he broke the Meydan track record are just the rudiments of the story.
As with any exceptional performance it is hard to find fresh superlatives and facts have to be assembled that will speak for themselves. I will name two.
Equinox finished faster than he ran at any time in the race, and at no stage – until he glanced at the big screen in the last few yards – did jockey Christophe Lemaire bother to check where the others were.
He knew that the pace he set would annihilate them, and the horse never faltered from a true line in cruise control.
I describe the field as ‘the others’ but they included champions in their own right and I have no hesitation in nominating Irish Derby winner Westover for a great season.
Westover’s runner-up prize yesterday was around double the purse for his Curragh victory last June.
More deja vu as Lord North won the Dubai Turf a third year for Team Gosden and Frankie Dettori, while in Ireland their Flat-turf season launched with the same domination of handicaps by Newmarket’s William Haggas.
His raider, Lattam, in the Irish Lincolnshire, and the Kildare mare Insinuendo in the first Group race of the new season are the other claims to fame in the week of the Spring equinox.
BACK OF THE NET, LUCINDA!
⭕ 2.25 Carlisle (One Man Series Final) Travail D’Orfevre would be an appropriate winner of this final, named after One Man, who won 20 races for Gordon Richards.
Champion Chase winner One Man was a remarkable grey, the North’s answer to Desert Orchid.
Travail D’Orfevre is a grey but there the resemblance ends; his 102 rating is four-and-a-half stone behind One Man’s ultimate standing and another 8lb behind Dessie in his pomp.
Getaway Luv has top spot here of 115, his rating achieved earlier this month but so far this race has gone to bottomweights, where Going Mobile languishes today.
As a winner only on good ground, he is one to watch for a Spring revival but that’s hardly likely in today’s heavy terrain.
It suits Gandhi Maker but he’s three grades and 15lb higher than his last win on the soft. Rocco Storm is another hiked in the ratings.
Netywell has scored only in novice company but, with the question marks I’ve raised over the others, this heavy-ground Ayr winner could step up for in-fom Lucinda Russell (7-22), claimed off for 5lb by the in-form Patrick Wadge (6-13 still standing)
Betdaq Betting Exchange 3.55 Netywell
WILD ABOUT HARRY AT 15.5
⭕ 3.35 Carlisle (Monet’s Garden Series Final) Would you believe, we commemorate another great grey, Monet’s Garden, trained by Gordon Richard’s son, Nicky, and three times a Grade-1 winner.
The stats are saying the same as for the other final: be on a lightweight! This time there’s a grey with a light weight (Fever Roque) and another (Thatsy) getting a stone from the favourite, Captain Quint, who has won two chases only in small fields.
Croagh Patrick and If Not For Dylan were the one-two last year but that was on good ground. It’s heavy today.
That should suit Uptown Harry, who was staying on well when Knocknamona won his qualifier for this in February, and is better off at the weights today.
BETDAQ value 15.5 Uptown Harry
COPPERHEAD HAS THE METAL
⭕ 3.52 Exeter (Devon Stayers Handicap) Joe Tizzard has really got it together now, with his Newbury double yesterday just down the road from the jumping empire of Lambourn.
He currently leads the diaspora of West Country trainers who have local meetings today at Exeter, tomorrow at Wincanton and Thursday at Taunton, with Harry Fry, David Pipe and Paul Nicholls bidding to share out the local prizemoney.
Tizzard’s Copperhead in this is now two stone below the mark that a hat -trick cost him in the 2019-20 season.
He could return to form, getting weight from Harry Fry’s Revels Hill, who won over a trip at Taunton last March and was fourth in the London National at Sandown in December.
Coolvalla, up 40lb since the start of a four-timer, and Poppa Poutine (only 1-11 in chases) don’t appeal but David Pipe’s Gwencily Berbas is a dual winner over this Exeter CD and Young Bull could improve for cheekpieces.
BETDAQ value 3.15 Revels Hill, 15.5 Copperhead
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.25 Carlisle (win 12, nap)
BET 4.75pts win NETYWELL
3.35 Carlisle (win 20 total)
BET 1.25pts win and place UPTOWN HARRY
3.52 Exeter (win 10 and win 20 total)
BET 5pts win REVELS HILL
BET 1.25pts win and place COPPERHEAD
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