123 POINTS PROFIT WITH 6-1 BIG-RACE WIN AND SECOND SUPERNAP: ‘Don’t beat yourself up about in-and-out handicap form; try Sacred at a price,’ declared Daqman yesterday, backing the Hungerford winner to land 50 points. In the other big Newbury race (the Geoffrey Freer), Hukum was Daqman’s 50th winner against Pricewise and the second supernap up in three days of eight wins and more than 123 points profit.
Saturday: profit on the day: 40.44 points
WON 6-1 SACRED (bull’s-eye bet) Newbury
WON 8-11 HUKUM (supernap) Newbury
Friday: profit on the day: 23.25 points
WON 13-2 AMAZONIAN DREAM Newbury
WON 9-4 EARLSWOOD The Curragh
Thursday: profit on the day: 60 points
WON 7-4 MEGALLAN (supernap) Salisbury
WON 5-6 CREATE BELIEF Leopardstown
WON 2-1 CRIMSON SAND Chelmsford
WON 1-1 INTERPRETATION Leopardstown
Latest scores Daqman 50, Pricewise 29. Supernaps 13-17 (76%)
TODAY AT DEAUVILLE It’s a clash of the season today: Palace Pier v Poetic Flare
TOMORROW’S YORK PREVIEW There’s a feast in store at York from Wednesday. Countdown tomorrow.
THE BEST PUNTING TIP UNDER THE SUN
Punters please note. A filly with the sun on her back is the definition of an improver at this time of year. Yet Sacred had won the Classic-trial Nell Gwyn back in April.
A fine piece of training but also an exercise in patience. Sacred had to wait for yesterday’s top of the ground for the Hungerford Stakes. Progeny of her sire have made 26 times more prizemoney on firm than on heavy.
It was her first run since the Guineas, so the temptation to run her next Saturday in another Group-2 over 7f, the City of York Stakes, will depend on how she is and how the weather behaves.
Second home in the Hungerford, Laneqash, the first foal of a Shamardal mare, Bonhomie, cost Shadwell only £175,000 as a yearling but left their Bunbury Cup winner, Motakhayyel, seven lengths in the rear.
With yesterday’s result another triumph for the three-year-olds, Sacred and Laneqash are exciting prospects for the rest of the season (when the track is dry) and next.
THREE-YEAR-OLD HAS GREATER FLARE
⭕ 2.50 Deauville (Prix Jacques Le Marois) The generation game was never so confrontational than Palace Pier (aged four) versus Poetic Flare (aged three) in this Group-1 clash on what is so rarely a decent surface at Deauville, the seaside track bathed in a weekend of sunshine.
In this race in 2020, Palace Pier was one of four winning three-year-olds in the last five years; now the racing boot is on the other hoof.
The new generation in the guise of the St James’s Palace Stakes winner, Poetic Flare, is head to head with last year’s St James’s Palace winner.
Comparisons can be made immediately. Palace Pier took a rating of 109 to the Royal Ascot race; Poetic Flare 118.
Poetic Flare won the Newmarket 2,000 Guineas and was second in the Irish version. Current rating 122 (but allowed 6lb).
Palace Pier never ran in a Classic, but is seven wins out of eight, and is unbeaten this year, the last two both Group 1, the Lockinge and the Queen Anne. Current rating 125.
It was heavy ground when he won this race last year from Irish raider, Alpine Star, who is back today, but the rain stays away, which is a bonus for Poetic Flare.
Jean Prat third, Midtown, and Victor Ludorum make up the French resistance. Once Andre Fabre’s champion – winner of the 2020 French Guineas and third in their Derby – Victor was back to form at Chantilly the last day.
Ecrivain won a Group 3 in June, Order Of Australia a Group 2 in July but six lengths behind Palace Pier at Royal Ascot.
BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE 3.5 Poetic Flare
SANTA BARBARA’S AMERICAN DREAM
⚠️ HEADS UP Aidan O’Brien’s Santa Barbara, fourth in the Guineas – just in front of Alcohol Free and Sacred – and fifth in the Oaks, has found her metier with a vengeance.
A mile and a quarter on the fast American tracks has landed her a £450,000 double, following up the Belmont Oaks with the Beverly D Stakes at Arlington Park under a jubilant Ryan Moore last night.
It was again a victory for a three-year-old filly, again at the expense of older animals, ‘pushed out, easily.’
⭕ 3.10 Pontefract I can’t recall, or find in any stats for, an Aidan O’Brien runner at Pontefract before, but there’s always an anorak somewhere to prove me wrong.
On a weekend of winning at Arlington Park and dispatching Order Of Australia to the Deauville feature, he’s been planning to take the Pontefract cake.
More Beautiful and Friendly bid for a £32,212 first prize and – even more important for Friendly – black type in this Listed Flying Fillies Stakes.
More Beautiful, blinkered first time today, has already managed a Listed place but has won only her maiden, always a bad sign. Friendly, sister to Gustav Klimt, has won more recently.
Happy Romance, a Group-3 has dropped out, which leaves Group-3 runner-up in the Brownstown, Valeria Messalina, as favourite, in first-time tongue-tie.
She travels well early and the drop back to 6f may suit, as it may also be the making of Double Or Bubble, another who has to keep waiting for better ground, as a daughter of Sacred’s sire, Exceed And Excel.
My Sauchiehall Street accent is just about up to mentioning Glesga Girl but she and More Beautiful have wide draws in 12 and 14.
BETDAQ value 3.45 Valeria Messalina, 13.5 Friendly
⭕ 3.00 Chelmsford Sky Blue Thinking, transformed by a drop back in trip for her new stable at Wolverhampton, escapes unpenalised for this and is a snip if she can turn it around in just six days.
BETDAQ value 3.05 Sky Blue Thinking
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.50 Deauville (win 10)
BET 4pts win POETIC FLARE
3.00 Chelmsford (win 10, nap)
BET 5pts win SKY BLUE THINKING
3.10 Pontefract (win 20, win 10)
BET 1.6pts win FRIENDLY
BET 4pts win VALERIA MESSALINA
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.
