DAQMAN WINNING STREAK FOR 125 POINTS PROFIT: Daqman has made 125 points profit in the last three days from a hot streak of winners, taking his feature-race hits for the season to 30 already, including yesterday’s Swinton Hurdle with Silver Streak (WON 13-2), following the Chester Cup with Magic Circle (WON 8-1). His winners since Thursday:
WON 5-1 PERFECT CLARITY (Lingfield Oaks Trial, Saturday)
WON 13-2 SILVER STREAK (Swinton Hurdle, Saturday)
WON 8-1 MAGIC CIRCLE (Chester Cup, Friday)
WON 11-2 DJIN CONTI (Thursday)
WON 5-1 ANOTHER BATT (from 7.8 BETDAQ Thursday)
WON 11-4 MOMENT OF MADNESS (5.2 BETDAQ Thursday)
WON 5-2 ROSTROPOVICH (4.5 BETDAQ, Thursday)
WON 8-11 IDAHO (supernap, 9-10 on BETDAQ, Thursday)
90 POINTS CLEAR OF PRICEWISE WITH 20 WINNERS: It was a Saturday on which Pricewise drew another blank, with Daqman now having scored 20 of his 30 feature wins in races nominated by the Racing Post expert (Daqman 20, Pricewise 6), with the yield from one-point level stakes, showing a gap of around 90 points: +27 Daqman -63 Pricewise
THE FRENCH GUINEAS AND LEOPARDSTOWN TRIALS: Daqman faces Pricewise again today in the two French Guineas, first Classics to be run back on the new ParisLongchamp track. But Leopardstown could also have Classic winners contained in its trials for 1,000 Guineas and Derby.
O’BRIEN FLAG FLIES AGAINST DRAW
Plus ca change.. The more things change, the more they stay the same. ParisLongchamp appears to have the same draw bias in the track that the old Longchamp did.
Perhaps after the fortunes spent on luxury racegoing for the seigneurs et dames, the track was an afterthought in the massive renovations and refurbishment. It has been savagely criticised at home. Now is the hour for us all to find out.
Today is the first international test. The first Classics return from Chantilly: the Poulains equates to the 2,000 Guineas, the Pouliches to the 1,000.
But the results by draw of 20 consecutive races up to a mile on the new ParisLongchamp turf suggest that Aidan O’Brien for one will wish that he’d stayed at home.
A total of 17 of the 20 winners came from stalls 1 to 5; two came from gate 7 and one from 10.
Not many were big fields, not many were handicaps (with which a true measure of draw bias should be made) but Aidan is unlikely to fall in love with the place if he finds that Could It Be Love’s 12 stall is a curse on her chance in the Pouliches (3.15). He’s fared not much better in the Poulains. Now read on:
OLMEDO MADE FOR CLASSIC ROLE
2.35 ParisLongchamp (French 2,000 Guineas) The last five results by stall of this colts’ Classic on the old track were 1, 5, 3, 1, 4, and sole break in the home team’s hold on the prize in the last decade was by Aidan O’Brien’s The Gurkha at the Deauville fill-in in 2016.
O’Brien is the only non-French based trainer to win the Poulains three times but here has U S Navy Flag coming out of gate 11.
The evidence of past results here, and current results at the new ParisLongchamp, reckon up to a draw that will lower the Flag.
U S Navy Flag was last of four in the Leopardstown 2,000 Guineas Trial, with the winner, Gustav Klimt, painting only a fair picture of that result when subsequently sixth in the Newmarket Guineas itself.
Hey Gaman, seemingly well drawn this afternoon in 2, was about a length third to James Garfield in the Greenham before that one was seventh, half a length behind Gustav Klimt, at Newmarket.
But the best collateral form this Spring seems to stem from the Prix Fontainebleau, in which Wootton beat Olmedo a head, with Rostropovich a well-beaten fourth.
With that under his belt, and on better ground at Chester, Rostropovich stormed clear in the Dee Stakes from the Blue Riband runner-up, who had last year beaten the winner of the Vase, Young Rascal.
Since Wootton and Olmedo are in adjacent low berths, drawn 3 and 4 today, they are going to be mighty hard to beat.
Kings Shield (in the one stall today) fell apart in a handicap on the last day, favourite for the Esher Cup but five lengths third.
This has always been his target but he has to bounce back here and prove that his Sandown flop (got warm and agitated) was a one-off.
Dice Roll won the sometimes-informative Prix Djebel, though has thus far been cleverly placed to beat nothing well in his four wins out of five on soft.
VERDICT: Olmedo (BETDAQ 3.6 taken) is bred for the part and can turn around the Wootton defeat on the better ground. Olmedo was runner-up to Happily (Newmarket 1,000 Guineas third) in the Lagardere, with Masar (Newmarket 2,000 Guineas third) in third.
NOW IT’S MUSIS MAESTRO, PLEASE
3.15 ParisLongchamp (French 1,000 Guineas) Could It Be Love is not a filly I would back into a milk-float. She’s so big in fact, she’d just knock it over.
But the Aidan O’Brien team has already performed some kind of miracle. Gangly and clueless, she went through her two-year-old maidens without success.
Then tongue-tie and first-time blinkers attached to a filled-out version of her War Front frame produced one-way traffic as she trotted up at Dundalk after a holiday of almost a year.
Rain and an outside stall in 12 won’t help, but she clearly ‘could be anything’. Just so surprising to see her in the higher echelons of Ballydoyle fillies.
When Godolphin’s Musis Amica won the main trial for this in April, the Prix De La Grotte, she was in the one stall on heavy ground and, cruising through from the back, had only to be pushed out.
Others ran below par that day, including Wind Chimes, but a 13 draw today won’t help her bid to turn the tables, and Musis Amica (BETDAQ 5.2) could be special in the hands of French maestro, Andre Fabre.
I’M OVER THE MOON ABOUT LUNA
3.10 Leopardstown (1,000 Guineas Trial) Of course Ballydoyle has had winners in this but Dermot Weld (Chiara Luna) has farmed it, with four in the decade.
Does he have the fire power these days? Will Magical and Ballet Shoes give Aidan O’Brien a boost for Could It Be Love in Paris? (You’d only have a few minutes to put your bets on if you were swayed towards Love)!
Moyglare runner-up Magical, Rhododendron’s sister, was fourth to Musis Amica in the Prix de la Grotte, and it is tempting to suppose that the form is already laid bare for one Classic and one Classic trial today.
But fillies are monsters. Like the Newmarket 1,000 Guineas winner, they can grow past their rivals unnoticed almost on the home gallops, once the sun is on their back.
What I like about Chiara Luna is that she won over 6f despite an abundance of stamina in the pedigree. Like Could It be Love, she is a War Front, and another possibility is that his fillies could land a cross-Channel double today.
Exciting stuff but tricky betting material. The offer of 10.0 Chiara Luna on BETDAQ helps me get involved.
3.40 Leopardstown (Derby Trial) I have a vested interest in Nelson confirming Ballysax form with Ballydoyle stablemate Delano Roosevelt.
He was turned over at odds on by my Derby ante-post bet, Roaring Lion, when they met at Newmarket in the Royal Lodge.
But the money for The Pentagon on the better ground this afternoon makes a bet between him and Nelson like punting with one eye closed.
DAQMAN’S BETS (win 30)
BET 11pts win OLMEDO (2.35 ParisLongchamp)
BET 3pts win and place CHIARA LUNA (3.10 Leopardstown)
BET 7pts win (nap) MUSIS AMICA (3.15 ParisLongchamp)
Did you know that as well as checking the realtime prices on BETDAQ below – you can also log into your account and place your bets directly into BETDAQ from BETDAQ TIPS.
