DAQMAN FLAGS UP 10.0 BETDAQ SHOCK: Daqman yesterday headlined his opposition to the 7-4 on Dewhurst favourite with the words: ‘10-1 IN THE EYE FOR THE EXPERT’. The 10.0 was the double-your-money BETDAQ value about his winning bet, US Navy Flag (WON 5-1). Expert Eye tailed off last.
HE HITS THE 80 MARK OVER PRICEWISE: It gave him a third winning bet in two days over Pricewise of the Racing Post, who also had a 10-1 winner, taking their score at the Newmarket Cesarewitch meeting to 3-1, and their overall totals to Daqman 81, Pricewise 20, with a gaping 326 points between them to level stakes.
WON 16-1 BRIMHAM ROCKS (from 19.5 BETDAQ, Friday)
WON 5-1 US NAVY FLAG (from 10.0 BETDAQ, Saturday)
WON 11-4 GHAIYYATH (Saturday)
WON 6-4 LIMATO (supernap, Friday)
CESAREWITCH 1-3-4 FOR THE ABC GUIDE: Daqman’s ABC guide to the Cesarewitch, published on Thursday, named Lagostovegas, Withhold and Dubawi Fifty as first, second and fourth. They finished third, first and fourth at 10-1, 5-1 and 14-1.
AIDAN HO! INTERNATIONAL KING
It’s the biggest Ballydoyle ballyhoo of them all. Fresh from his 1-2-3-4 in the Dewhurst, and needing one more to crack Bobby Frankel’s Group/Grade 1 haul for a year, Aidan O’Brien saddles Idaho (11.10 pm, Woodbine) for a fourth Canadian International tonight.
He also sends over Rain Goddess (10.38 pm in the E. P. Taylor for fillies and mares. Cotai Glory is favourite for Charles Hills (8.48 pm) in the lower-grade Nearctic Stakes sprint.
Meanwhile, on the Flat in England’s Indian summer, Goodwood has typical end-of-season dross, while Naas in the rain has a huge pinstickers’ card. Good luck, Shamrock, after your 10-1 nap yesterday!
Maybe he’ll turn to the Jumps at Cork, as I do at Chepstow, where the Persian War Novices’ Hurdle brings together winners galore. Half a dozen of them won their last race.
MALAYA LUCKY 7 FOR NICHOLLS
1.40 Chepstow Paul Nicholls has won this six times from eight tries (form figures 111101 since 2008, four of them odds-on favourite), and perhaps only Gumball can come anywhere near stopping Malaya making it eight.
The grey gelding Gumball is made odds-on this morning on the strength of his 31-lengths win at Stratford in poor time for the good ground but Malaya won 30 lengths on top of the ground in the Spring.
Malaya has improved to score on the soft-heavy at Listed level on the tough track at Auteuil. She’s won from the front and won from behind, good ground and very soft.
That puts her a long way ahead on form, and it will be a surprise, knowing Nicholls record in this race, if she isn’t ready to chew up the Gumball.
2.15 Chepstow If you think the early novice chases look easy, be warned that only one favourite has won this since 2011, and market leaders to ‘get beat’ recently have included the Paul Nicholls pair, Just A Par (at 4-7) and Arpege d’Alene.
Nicholls again looks vulnerable. His Mr Mix has to give 12lb to Mia’s Storm, the Alan King mare giving up the chance of a hurdles hat-trick to start out over the bigger obstacles today. The drying ground is vital to her chances at 5.0 on BETDAQ.
GO TO WAR WITH AMOUR DE NUIT
2.50 Chepstow (Persian War Novices’ Hurdle) This is a strong race to commemorate Champion Hurdle hat-trick winner Persian War (1968-70), who was arguably the best since Sir Ken in the 1950s. He had the Derby lineage of Blandford and Bahram.
The blue blood today is Amour De Nuit, by 2005 King George hero Azamour, out of a mare whose grandsire was the father of the modern thoroughbred, Northern Dancer himself.
His dam’s sire was the immortal Bustino, famous for his battle with Grundy in another King George, called the race of the century. Amour De Nuit isn’t doing so bad himself.
After five wins out of seven on the Flat as one of those Sir Mark Prescott sequence horses, at this time of year in 2015 he tried the British Champions’ Long-Distance Cup (2m)
Progressed 11lb this Spring when turning to hurdles under Paul Nicholls, and won well fresh on the reappearance at Newton Abbot three weeks back.
He’s up in trip here but loses his novice status at the end of the month so that this is probably his last hurdle race before novice chasing.
Vision Des Flos who won one of the top bumpers of the Irish season at Punchestown, is from National Hunt stock and his breeding leaves no doubt that he wants this extended trip as a hurdles starter.
Another four-year-old in the race, Equus Amadeus (a tribute to Peter Shaffer?) may need more time to step up in this company.
Tommy Rapper has already experienced staying races but has never won. He had a bridesmaid sequence of 2223 still standing before being outclassed in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham.
Class-2 handicapper Dear Sire is a galloping front-runner who will make this a real test. Lines to form suggest that Ballymountain Boy has a better chance than Gustave Mahler, but Black Mischief is unexposed.
There are just 3.8 points separating five at the front of a punter-friendly BETDAQ market this morning (overround 107%). The new Tizzard-Cooper combo will be hard to beat wherever they go but I’m assuming this is a Nicholls’ day: 6.8 Amour De Nuit for me.
ROSS TO LAND VETERANS’ DOUBLE
3.25 Chepstow A lot of old friends’ in this veterans’ chase but which yard is forward enough to knock off the tempting £18,000 prize?
Lamb or Cod, who has won when fresh, took the Welsh Grand National trial over this CD off a similar mark last December, and Philip Hobbs has just had three winners in three days.
Double Ross won this first time out last season, and the Hennessy third will have been prepared for the race again.
He is better off with the runner-up, Loose Chips, but is 7lb worse with the close-up-fourth Theatrical Star, though that one is very difficult to win with. In nearly four years and 27 races, he’s won only in class-3 small-field, soft-heavy contests.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 20 points, unless stated)
BET 10pts win (nap) MALAYA (1.40 Chepstow)
BET 5pts win MIA’S STORM (2.15 Chepstow)
BET 3.5pts win AMOUR DE NUIT (2.50 Chepstow)
BET (to win 30) 9pts win DOUBLE ROSS and (stakes saver) 1.75pts win LAMB OR COD (3.25 Chepstow)
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