HE’S THE CHAMP! ANOTHER WINNING SATURDAY: Daqman had another successful Saturday with 32.50 profit overall thanks to two winners, one at Fairyhouse, one in the Ladbrokes Hurdle at Newbury:
WON 9-2 CHAMP (Ladbrokes Hurdle)
WON 4-1 JACK DILLINGER (Fairyhouse)
DAQMAN’S NAPS: 222.37 points profit from nine winners out of 12 (yesterday 2nd 4-1)
HORSES TO FOLLOW: 111.66 profit with two running today: Lever Du Soleil and Blow By Blow (see story).
VALUE CHALLENGE: Daqman 2 (- 13.25). Pricewise 1 (+ 1.00). Today: 2.40, 3.10 Fairyhouse.
LEVER CLEAR ON COLLATERAL FORM
12.35 Fairyhouse Gavin Cromwell’s Lever Du Soleil runs for my horses-to-follow list (so, too, Blow By Blow an hour later).
Cromwell won this race 12 months ago with a horse on a four-timer, and Lever Du Soleil might be on a hat-trick now had he not tipped up when 10 lengths clear at Punchestown.
Had he won the race, we would now be saying that Humaniste was his inferior. Chief Justice had Our Legend behind at Gowran and the runner-up in the race was swamped by Humaniste at Fairyhouse.
Our Legend’s finishing close up to Coeur Sublime at Down Royal is another piece of the jigsaw which again has Lever Du Soleil first on the grid.
I hope it works out that way, as I could get 7.4 Lever Du Soleil on BETDAQ this morning against 1.84 Coeur Sublime (saver) and Humaniste.
COMMANDER COULD BE ANYTHING
1.05 Fairyhouse (Royal Bond Novice Hurdle) Willie Mullins has had five more Royal Bond winners since Hurricane Fly burst onto the scene 10 years ago.
It’s another novices’ race and another jigsaw of collateral form, which hangs around Mullins pair when they met at Navan in November: Quick Grabim gave 7lb and was beaten four-and-a-half lengths by Aramon. Grabim should turn this around at the revised weights but was clearly prone to errors which could be just as costly today.
Triplicate had earlier beaten Aramon at Listowel after going down to Quick Grabim at Tipperary. Gets tedious, don’t it.
So I’ll try the only unbeaten runner, Commander Of Fleet (BETDAQ 2.76) , who was good enough to win one of the big bumpers of last season at the Punchestown festival and landed his hurdles maiden there a fortnight ago. Could be anything.
RICHEBOURG MUST WORK HARD
1.35 Fairyhouse (Drinmore Novice Chase) Gordon Elliott, who has won this twice more since Don Cossack (2013), has Blow By Blow from my horses-to-follow list.
This is his distance today but stablemate Delta Work, who was in front of him over 3m, dropped back to score over the trip on his return a month back: 3.45 on BETDAQ as I write, with Le Richebourg 4.6.
Like Delta Work, the progressive Le Richebourg is only five years old. His back-to-back chases success already takes his chase rating above his hurdles mark to my reckoning.
Joseph O’Brien, who has had nine winners in two days, is hopeful that Le Richebourg will be a Cheltenham horse, so he has to take this in his stride up the ranks.
APPLE’S JADE THE DAY’S SUPERNAP
2.40 Fairyhouse (Hatton’s Grace Hurdle) It’s hard to follow up in the Hatton’s Grace but Apple’s Jade has already won it twice and goes for the hat trick today, still only six.
In this race last year, he beat Supasundae more than 10 lengths at today’s weights and had Limini nearly two lengths behind, third, when he won at the Cheltenham festival.
Limini beat him on very heavy ground at Punchestown earlier but it won’t be that this afternoon.
The handicapper closed the gap between the two mares by a couple of pounds but Apple’s Jade is still officially 6lb better and is a year younger.
In fact, Sutton Place is nearest in the ratings, having beaten Supasundae twice last season but he has to give the mares 7lb.
LAISH CAN HAVE THE CUTTING EDGE
3.10 Fairyhouse Jezki’s second to Apple’s Jade was a good run back but, like Blazer, we expect that of him and would be more hopeful that he’d hold his form if the ground came up soft.
Hearts Are Trumps, who is half Jezki’s age, has progressed 24lb to 136 since early October and shows no sign of stopping, as long as the ground remains reasonable.
However, he was beaten at Galway by one of Charles Byrne’s pair, Off You Go, yet is worse off with that one today, if you include the 7lb claim in your calculations.
But the very fact Byrnes feels he has to claim off this one suggests that his other runner, the 4.1 BETDAQ favourite Wonder Laish – also raised to 136 after scoring at Navan – is the one to be on under Davy Russell.
Among the lightweights, Tudor City (16.0 offers) has dropped to a competitive mark for the wily Tony Martin.
DAQMAN’S BETS
12.35 Fairyhouse (win 30)
BET 4.75pts win LEVER DU SOLEIL
BET (stakes saver) 5.5pts win COEUR SUBLIME
1.05 Fairyhouse (win 20)
BET 11.5pts win COMMANDER OF FLEET
1.35 Fairyhouse (win 20 and win 10)
BET 5.25pts win LE RICHEBOURG
BET 3.75pts win DELTA WORK
2.40 Fairyhouse (supernap)
BET 20pts win APPLE’S JADE
3.10 Fairyhouse (win 30)
BET 9pts win WONDER LAISH
BET 2pts win and place TUDOR CITY
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