1-2-3! DAQMAN TIPS NATIONAL ORDER IN: Daqman named the first three home in correct order for yesterday’s Grand National at Aintree and opposed Iroko (fourth), the favourite, with his Lays Logic. Just 90 minutes earlier, in three consecutive days of profit at Aintree, he named the one-two in the Freebooter Chase at 10-1 and 11-4. The Grand National tricast paid £7,665. Here’s his National return, and the three winning Aintree days.
Grand National 1-2-3 for 2025
1: NICK ROCKETT WON 33-1
2: I AM MAXIMUS 2nd 7-1
3: GRANGECLARE WEST 3rd 33-1 (BETDAQ 50.0)
Aintree Saturday: profit on the day 46.30 points
WON 33-1 (w/p) NICK ROCKETT
WON 10-1 CRUZ CONTROL (Imperial Saint 2nd 11-4)
WON 15-8 KALIF DU BERLAIS
WON (Lays Logic) 4th 13-2 IROKO
Aintree Friday: profit on the day 9.83
WON 7-2 SALVATOR MUNDI
WON 4-6 JONBON (supernap)
Aintree Thursday: profit 6.50
WON 11-4 MURCIA BETDAQ 6.8 taken
WON 5-4 LOSSIEMOUTH
WON (Lay) GREY DAWNING 2nd 9-4
MULLINS PLOTS TITLE DEFENCE: I’ll be seeing you, warned current champion Willie Mullins, after he closed the British trainers’ title gap to £122,026 behind Dan Skelton, last stop Sandown on April 26 but before then big meetings at Ayr next week and Perth (April 23-25).
FIREBIRD CAN POP THE CORK
⭕ 3.25 Cork: Follow that! Somehow we have to forget the big fences and the big horses for a while, look for sleek thoroughbreds and speed up dramatically to Listed and Group level on the Flat. In this case six furlongs. That’s almost as far as the starter made them walk in for a race at Aintree!
Cashel trainer Paddy Twomey makes the ideal connection; he had a winner at Dundalk in late March and took a bumper at Aintree on Thursday, so that’s Flat winners on AW and at a Grand National meeting!
Paddy won with Firebird (BETDAQ 7.0 today) first time out last summer but also has Billy Lee on King Cuan (3.95 taken), who won at Cork first time when landing a hat-trick in the autumn of 2023. We have no choice but to back both.
The enigma of the race is Vespertilio, third in the French 1,000 Guineas last Spring, but then a well beaten ninth to Fallen Angel in the Irish version two weeks later, an obvious deterioration on her Moyglare second to Fallen Angel the previous September.
She was any price you like on the exchanges after that, and right now her yard is on a very long losing run.
STARS PROGRESS MAPPED OUT
⭕ 4.00 Longchamp: There are Group-3 colts’ (Prix la Force) and fillies’ (the Vanteaux) tests in Paris today, with this race – the Harcourt – a Group 2.
Map Of Stars is going through the grades, winning a Listed in October and a Group 3 at Saint-Cloud last month (Daring Prince, last of five, had been in a one-two with Birr Castle in a Listed).
Trainer Francis Graffard moved Map up in class and trip under James Doyle the last day and now hopes this will be the stepping-stone to the Group-1 Ganay at the end of the month.
Group-1 placed Horizon Dore was a beaten favourite first run back and I’m more intrigued by the appearance in this race of Jack Channon’s Certain Lad, now nine years old!
In fact, at aged seven and eight, he rose from handicap level to run five times in a row first or second at Group level last summer.
MURPHY HAS ONE-STALL PLAY
⭕ 4.55 Southwell Will Channon be celebrating at Southwell within an hour of the Longchamp race when he runs his recent Lingfield winner Ferrous, also over 6f?
Ferrous won back to back at this time last year but is drawn on the outer in 14, an even lonelier outpost after the withdrawal from the next-door stall 13 of the sole CD winner, Billyjoh.
Wiltshire (10) also scored first time last Spring and is 3-4 on AW but the most likely winner is right over on the low side, if Oisin Murphy can go with the pace from the one stall.
I refer to Andrew Balding’s Purosangue, who plummets to a handicap after 11 races in the Pattern; he even ran in a Group 1 at Royal Ascot. BETDAQ 9.3 taken.
The only query is why he needed gelding after P J McDonald’s tribute on dismounting at York: ‘he is a willing partner; small but solid.’
⭕ 6.00 Southwell Balding and Murphy launch the career of a €400,000 Deauville yearling buy for Juddmonte, Blue Bolt, a daughter of Blue Point, around evens this morning.
EAZY OR BELIEVE IN BOUGHEY
⭕ 6.30 Southwell Anything Charlie Appleby can do, I can do, Heather Main seems to be saying, as she takes on some seasoned fillies with a three-year-old.
Charlie won this last year for Godolphin’s boys in blue, and Heather’s Eazy On The Eye scored back to back at Wolverhampton in the autumn, with her Newmarket yard currently all guns blazing with figures of 1411.
Those four include two AW Flat winners and a chaser of class-2 standing, veteran Numitor, at Ascot.
Snag is that George Boughey (with Del Ray) and Charlie Johnston (Happy To Fly) have the same idea.
All three three-year-olds have a similar rating, getting a stone and upwards from six of their seven older opponents.
Boughey won a massive £696,000 sprint prize with the mare Believing at Meydan’s Sheema Classic meeting yesterday. I wonder if she worked with Del Ray any time!
Betdaq Betting Exchange 9.3 Eazy On The Eye, 14.5 Del Ray
DAQMAN’S BETS on Betdaq Betting Exchange
3.25 Cork (both win 12)
BET 4pts win KING CUAN
BET 2pts win FIREBIRD
★ 4.00 Longchamp (supernap)
BET 20pts win MAP OF STARS
4.55 Southwell (win-50 bull’s-eye bet)
BET 6pts win and place PUROSANGUE
6.30 Southwell (win-50 bull’s-eye bets)
BET 6pts win EAZY ON THE EYE
BET 3.75pts win and place DEL RAY
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