LOG ON TO BETDAQ FOR 9.0 WIN: Daqman started well yesterday with the runaway Log Out Island (WON 7-1 from 9.0 on BETDAQ), and landed a double whammy with a place lay on Limato (unplaced 3-1 favourite) and place return from Endless Drama (3rd 8-1 from 10.0) in the same race. It put him on the 30 mark against Pricewise:
Bankers 3-7
Fortune Cookies 1-2
Lays (86%) 19 out of 22
Challenge: Daqman 30, Pricewise 9
ENGLAND FOR GUINEAS AT 12.0: Daqman tries two naps today, one in England at Ripon and one in France for the 1,000 Guineas at Deauville. In the French 2,000, he recommends a 6.0 place on BETDAQ, condemning the favourites for their lack of experience. He reckons on an English victory at 12.0.
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL IN FRENCH 1,000
Hope rather than judgement. The form is unreadable. That’s the situation you’re in, betting on the French Guineas today, if trainers’ comments to the Racing Post are to be believed.
I believe them. But the Post loses credibility for its coverage when it tells us that this could be Aidan O’Brien’s ‘first French 1,000 Guineas.’
My pocket still hurts from the defeat of Banks Hill by O’Brien’s Rose Gypsy (Mick Kinane) in this race in 2001. But I followed up at Royal Ascot and watched Banks Hill win the Coronation Stakes.
2.15 Deauville (French 1,000 Guineas) O’Brien and John Gosden (he took this in 1999 and 2002) both try to stop a hat-trick by Jean-Claude Rouget.
Rouget, who has trained more than 5,500 winners from his base at Pau, gives himself three chances to continue his ‘Pouliches’ sequence, one of them the unbeaten Le Cresonniere.
But the form we know is the fillies’ Criterium last October when another Rouget runner today, Qemah, was third to Ballydoyle.
Ballydoyle has since finished a respectful runner-up to Minding in the Newmarket 1,000, with the third filly home, Alice Springs, who had been just behind Besharah (stamina doubt) in the Cheveley Park in September.
There’s no Minding and no Ballydoyle today but the betting is that their influence will be felt through Alice Springs and Qemah, who won the Prix De La Grotte trial this Spring in scintillating manner.
Alice Springs, Qemah and Come Alive have such stamina-packed pedigrees you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is an Oaks.
Presumably one of the Rouget runners will be pacemaker, so setting up a three-way battle for this Poule d’Essai des Pouliches over the Deauville straight mile.
The Prix Imprudence is usually a good guide to the French fillies and the seemingly classy runner-up, Midweek (Spectre won it) was sent over for the Newmarket 1,000 but, like Nathra, was well behind Minding and therefore Alice Springs.
Banks Hill had had only two races when Rose Gypsy beat her in that Pouliches of 2001, and I shall reject Come Alive as the winner on the grounds that she, too, is inexperienced with just two starts.
Flaws in Qemah? Her success has all come on tracks with a bend, including that Prix de la Grotte, which was the best guide when the Pouliches was at Longchamp.
Alice Springs (4.4 exchanged) has run two excellent races in the wide-open spaces of Newmarket and the drying ground on a sunny day at Deauville will also suit, while the pace will bring her stamina into play.
BIRCHWOOD CAMP BULLISH ABOUT GUINEAS
3.20 Deauville (French 2,000 Guineas) Three times a winner of this Poulains, O’Brien has supplemented the easy maiden scorer, The Gurkha, who – like the two favourites, Zarak and Zelzal, and the Gosden runner, Crazy Horse – has had only two races in his life.
A twice-raced horse has not won this Classic in the current century, and I’m not foraging on the computer further back in time or my toast will get cold!
When the Newmarket Guineas winner, Galileo Gold, was third in the Criterium in the autumn, the race was won by Ultra for Andre Fabre, with Attendu behind.
But Attendu has taken a big leap forward, if collateral form with Newmarket Guineas third, Ribchester (First Selection seventh), can be believed. He was threeparts of a length behind that one in the Prix Djebel trial in April.
But Attendu’s trainer – seemingly not with hope rather than judgement – insists that Alignment is the better, and has deliberately been given easier targets.
Richard Fahey’s Breeders Cup third, Birchwood, could be best from this side of the Channel. Stable reports are bullish.
George Patton was only a neck off Zarak at Maisons, and won on good ground as a two-year-old on today;s course, though the runner-up that day has let the form down.
The form is indeed unreadable until the jigsaw comes together today but I shall add hope to judgement and back Birchwood at 12.0 and follow the trainer’s lead to Alignment at 26.0, though you should have a small stakes saver on Attendu (20.0) just in case.
BETDAQ has a place market in the orange, with the 6.0 Alignment looking really decent.
RIPON Silvestre De Sousa, who won for both Mick Channon and Ed Dunlop yesterday, rides for them at Ripon on Zig Zag Girl (3.00) and Sagely (4.45).
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 30 points unless stated)
BET 8.8pts win (French nap) ALICE SPRINGS (2.15 Deauville)
BET (win 20) 10pts win (English nap) ZIG ZAG GIRL (3.00 Ripon)
BET 2.7pts win and place BIRCHWOOD, and 1.2pts win and place ALIGNMENT, plus 2.5pts win (stakes saver) ATTENDU (3.20 Deauville)
BET (win 20) 8.5pts win SAGELY (4.45 Ripon)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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