THE 14-1 PORTLAND WINNER STRIKES UP 70 AGAINST PRICEWISE: Daqman reached 70 winning bets over Pricewise of the Racing Post yesterday and that 700-point margin between them which he boasted about before Saturday’s racing is now 850 after the 14-1 Portland winner and more losses for his arch-rival. Their total returns are 70-31.
WON 14-1 OXTED (Portland Handicap, 20.0 BETDAQ offers)
WIN-50 BULL’S-EYE BETS ON A GLITTERING CARD AT THE CURRAGH: Oxted was a win-50 bull’s-eye bet and there are more this afternoon on another massive day, with the Arc trials at Longchamp and a glittering Curragh card of major races which climaxes with the Irish St Leger. Daqman’s current accounts:
Daqman 70, Pricewise 31 (Daqman profit + 400, Pricewise loss – 450)
Bulls-eye naps (7-15) 46% (252pts profit to recommended stakes)
Supernaps (22-32) 69% (152pts profit to 20-point stakes)
ARC TRIALS: THIS ‘ASS’ IS NO DONKEY
Scusami! I think when he first appeared I called Sotsass ‘Scotsass’ (note to editor: please do a Boris redact). The colt came from nowhere to beat Persian King in the French Derby at Chantilly in June.
We knew not of him before, and we haven’t seen him since. But we did get word of him in a roundabout way, when John Gosden declared that ‘the French colt’, named after Italian architect and designer, Ettore Sotsass, was the one he feared when Enable lines up for her Arc hat-trick.
The punter’s godsend deigned to use the name, perhaps in case of some Glaswegian slip of the tongue like my own, but it was clear that the equine Signore Sottsass is close to getting right up his Brexit!
Now we’ll see more of what was hidden in Jean-Claude Rouget’s sporran when Sotsass (3.25 race) preps for the Arc at Longchamp this afternoon, with not a lot to beat, though a Mr Aidan O’Brien is having a look-see with Mohawk.
In the Prix Vermeille (2.50), Gosden’s Ribblesdale and Irish Oaks winner, Star Catcher (tipped by Daqman at the Curragh) meets stable companion Anapurna (tipped by Daqman at Epsom), who beat Pink Dogwood and Fleeting in the first of the Oaks.
What to do? Like Mr Gosden, I think I can trap the winner by playing both fillies this afternoon. Now to that glittering day in Ireland..
RHYDWYN ANOTHER FLYING YOUNGSTER
1.20 The Curragh (Bold Lad Sprint) Three-year-olds are pulling double in the sprint division. Khaadem won the Stewards Cup, then yesterday Oxted (who had won over 7f) took the Portland.
Rhydwyn can continue the good work at 25.0 BETDAQ offers early mouse. Tom Hogan has a good-actioned horse there for the top of the ground, very speedy and aggressive, and no reason why he shouldn’t outgun them early and battle on at the front as he has done at 7f and 1m.
Verhoyen and Buffer Zone went right away from them here in the Scurry in July in a fast time after the six stall broke clear at the start and took Verhoyen from the low numbers (8) with him.
Rhydwyn is on the stands’ side (gate 25), so I’ll take 8.8 offer Buffer Zone (in 6) in a far-side stall to get revenge on Verhoyen on 3lb better terms under Colin Keane. I took 25.0 and 12.0 respectively.
TARNAWA TAKEN TO OUTSTAY GODDESS
1.55 The Curragh (Blandford Stakes) Though Aidan O’Brien attacked with a total of seven runners against him in the last three years, Dermot Weld completed a hat-trick in this.
He’s had five of the 10 winners in the decade to O’Brien’s one and has landed eight Blandford successes all told.
Fortune has favoured Weld in that three of his five recent winners have been drawn 1, with the two others in 3 and 4.
Against 4.4 offer Tarnawa today is that she’s coming out of stall 7 and has never set hoof on the Curragh. Her best form is at 1m 4f but she just scraped home a neck over Who’s Steph earlier in the Blue Wind (1m 2f) over today’s trip.
Her arch-rival today, Goddess – next door in 8 – dropped back slightly in both trip and class for back-to-back wins in the Hurry Harriet and the Snow Fairy (Trethias third), after trailing nine lengths behind Trethias in the Naas Oaks Trial. She also got revenge on Credenza, who had beaten her over 1m 4f in the Spring.
Granted a genuine pace to the race, and bearing Weld’s Blandford record in mind, I shall side with Tarnawa’s stamina narrowly over Goddess, but wondering if there’s been any progress in Nausha at home, after her Nell Gwyn proved to be against moderate opposition.
SOFFIA READY FOR AN ARMCHAIR RIDE
2.25 The Curragh (Flying Five) Fairyland’s Cheveley Park proved substandard and she’s looked a filly without a trip this year, fifth and sixth in the two 1,000 Guineas, and similarly close up without being able to strike, dropped back in trip, in the Kings Stand and the July Cup.
Also close up – in Kings Stand and Nunthorpe – but equally disappointing is Mabs Cross. She’s looked a Group-3 mare these days at best, with her Abbaye the one tick in the Group-1 box, now looking like a fluke.
Meanwhile, Soffia has been hiked 21lb after a year of progress through Listed to Group 3 to Group 2, the last two both here at the Curragh, really impressive on the last day when taking the Sapphire from the ‘machine’, El Astronaute, with the favourite, Soldiers Call, back in fourth. You’ve always got to be with the improver.
DAAHYEH HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG
3.00 The Curragh (Moyglare Stud Stakes) Before we write off The Ballydoyle mob here as exposed, compared with the likes of Albigna, we know in the back of our mind that they can bounce back.
Precious Moments, half-length runner-up to Albigna, over 6f, was trounced by Love over the extra furlong of the Silver Flash at Leopardstown.
Ryan Moore stood by Love, favourite for the Debutante here at The Curragh, but she faded quickly at the business end.
No such ins-and-outs of collateral form apply to Albany winner Daahyeh (BETDAQ 4.2 taken), whose defeat by Raffle Prize at the July Meeting seems massively boosted by his going down only a neck to Earthlight, albeit on heavy, in the Morny, with good judges rating Earthlight the best two-year-old in France for many a year.
WILL THE PINATUBO BUBBLE BURST?
3.35 The Curragh (National Stakes) This race has thrown up the best (Dawn Approach, Gleneagles, Churchill) but also the fake news (Air Force Blue, Quorto).
It’s almost a Guineas run eight months early today, with the top two-year-old, Pinatubo, defending his Chesham and Vintage Stakes status, challenged by a strong forward line from Ballydoyle: Armory and Arizona.
I say ‘almost’, because Siskin (switched to the Middle Park) and the French ace Earthlight are not on the field, and the problem for punting is that, with an Aidan O’Brien quartet against him, Pinatubo may be set a hare to catch, leaving a Ballydoyle lurcher to come in for the kill late in the race; if race there still is! We can only ‘expect’ Pinatubo but without a bet at such short odds, fearful that the bubble might burst.
TODAY’S THE DAY FOR COUNTER ATTACK
4.10 The Curragh (Irish St Leger) Kew Gardens won the English St Leger last year and we now know why. Those behind would turn out to be a Group 2 and Group 3 supporting cast but not leading players themselves.
Capri who won it the year before at Doncaster has failed in nine of his 10 starts since. So no Cup horses coming forward from these Legers, as Order Of St George did.
Even old Twilight Payment has disposed of Latrobe and Southern France in the Curragh Cup.
So we really must hope for Cross Counter if we want a youngster with a solid future for the Long Distance Cup at Ascot or, indeed, a fantasy Melbourne Cup repeat. He won last year when only three.
Cross Counter, too, has been a nearly horse, but you can forgive his being outplayed by Stradivarius in the Cup races, and this drop back to 1m 6f must see a power run from him.
What’s he going to do? Try to win another Melbourne Cup again? That’s Makye believe! Try to beat Stradivarius at Newmarket? Nah, today’s the day. Gotta be; or his whole year could be wasted. I took 3.5 on BETDAQ.
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.20 The Curragh (win 50 bull’s-eye bet, 10 place)
BET 4.5pts win BUFFER ZONE
BET 2pts win and place RHYDWYN
1.55 The Curragh (win 20)
BET 5.75pts win TARNAWA
2.50 Longchamp (win 20)
BET 8pts win STAR CATCHER
BET 5pts win ANAPURNA
2.25 The Curragh (win 20 Irish nap)
BET 8.5pts win SOFFIA
3.00 The Curragh
BET 20pts win DAAHYEH
3.25 Longchamp (French supernap)
BET 20pts win SOTSASS
4.10 The Curragh (win 20)
BET 8pts win CROSS COUNTER
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