DAQMAN’S 156 POINTS FROM SIX-DAYS HORSE PLAY: Daqman has made a profit for six days in row, going into today, the last day of the week, 156 points to the good to recommended stakes, after four more returns yesterday:
WON 11-4 HORSEPLAY
WON 7-4 ROARING LION (supernap)
2ND 10-1 CROWNED EAGLE (w/p, beaten a neck)
2ND 3-1 DESERT DIAMOND (w/p, from 9.8 BETDAQ)
‘LION’ LANDS HIM FIVE WINNING NAPS OUT OF SIX: If you’d backed his five winning naps in the six days, you could have made 146 points to 20-point level stakes.
WON 7-4 ROARING LION (Saturday supernap)
WON 9-4 SAVING GRACE (Friday nap)
WON 9-4 ALJADY (Wednesday nap)
WON 6-4 THE GREAT WALL (Tuesday nap)
WON 4-7 CONSTRUCT (Monday supernap)
VALUE DATE AT DEAUVILLE 131 POINTS IN FRONT: Daqman leads Pricewise 44-16 as they do battle for value in the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville today (Daqman + 63, Pricewise -68 to a single-unit level stake).
DAQMAN AND THE DODGY LION
Not so much a case of ‘I told you so’. I made no secret of opposing Saxon Warrior all week and I supernapped Roaring Lion yesterday.
But Lion’s success in the Eclipse was hardly ‘roaring’ but a bit of a Pyrrhic victory, in which both winner and second lost kudos with their old trademarks again in evidence.
Roaring Lion came off a true line and leaned on Saxon Warrior (‘bumped me three times,’ claimed jockey Donnacha O’Brien to a protracted Stewards’ inquiry).
The Warrior had stayed on in the manner which had deluded his connections into thinking he was a Derby horse.
The plain facts are this: they are good horses but by no means champions. They were raw, still green, with Guineas and Derby coming plenty soon enough after a long wet winter and they needed time as winter turned to a scorching summer.
That time has run out for me. Of the pair, I was glad to be on Roaring Lion, but bring back Enable if you want a champion this year.
Or dare Jessica Harrington to take on the colts with another filly, Alpha Centauri, who is expected to turn up on the July Course this week for the Falmouth Stakes.
I had already removed Saxon Warrior from my Fortune Cookies horses-to-follow list. Now it’s definitely a life sentence, Without Parole.
WE NEED KLIMT TO KISS SUCCESS
3.30 Deauville (Prix Jean Prat) With a very modest 11% strike rate for his three-year-olds in England this season, Aidan O’Brien turns to France to try to add to his diminished Group 1 returns.
Gustav Klimt was sixth to Saxon Warrior in the Newmarket Guineas, third to Romanised in the Irish version and second to Without Parole in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.
He needs to win this to boost our confidence in Without Parole if he is to take on the best of the Classic crop at some later stage of the season.
The Classic scene this year has been all about who gets what trip and in which conditions.
And here against Gustav Klimt we have the French 2,000 Guineas one-two, Olmedo and Hey Gaman, back for a rematch, returning to a mile, both failing to get the trip in the French Derby (Intellogent fourth).
But in the manner of Without Parole is Wusool, who also missed their Guineas, and Francois Rohaut sums up our quest for a champion and his own with the words:’ He’s won four out of five. Now it’s time to see if he’s a good horse or a really good horse.’
Wusool is not the only late developer in the charge to crush Classic form. Cascadian has that ‘could be anything’ look and is with Andre Fabre, who early in the season said the colt was his best three-year-old.
Cascadian couldn’t have had a more timely boost to his form than yesterday’s convincing Sandown success by Tigre Du Terre, whom he beat at Maisons in June.
‘The tiger’ was winning only a class-2 handicap yesterday, albeit looking like a Group horse in a handicap, as they say.
Ancient Spirit’s German Derby was let down by the runner-up, Fajjaj, at Royal Ascot, who now descends to a class-5 novice stakes at Ayr today.
VERDICT: There is no slide rule which will compare the form of the Guineas in England, Ireland and France, and the Derbys of France and Germany, which are all represented here.
But with a strong pace likely to be set by Ancient Spirit, I’ll have a pound on Intellogent (around 17.0 offers), who finished fourth in the French Derby, in front of Hey Gaman and Olmedo.
He’ll be up there with Ancient Spirit and they’ll take some catching on the soft ground. Gustav Klimt is the safe bet for a place but wouldn’t repay our loyalty at the offers.
THE DAY FAIRYHOUSE ROCKS
3.30 Fairyhouse (Brownstown Stakes) Aidan O’Brien has never won this Group 3 for fillies and mares but it will be a shock if he’s turned over with Could It be Love (sounds like the answer to a Wimbledon quiz).
In fact, a ‘Love’ defeat would be a blow to high hopes of Alpha Centauri, who beat here into second in the Irish 1,000 Guineas (Lightening Quick behind).
She has also managed to ‘get beat’ in the French 1,000 and the Jersey Stakes, and has won only her maiden, which is always a bad sign.
O’Brien has always run fillies in this of lower quality, like Asking last year. She was third and followed the pattern, failing ever to win again.
And, in fact, three-year-olds have won this just twice in the decade and the outright favourite only once.
Five-year-olds are going for a hat-trick and Yorkshire raider Lincoln Rocks, a 10.0 offer, was lightning fast on grass at Lingfield in May at today’s level and drops back in grade from a Group-2 try on the last day.
4.45 Limerick (Galway Plate Trial) I put this one in for you Ballybrit addicts who can’t wait for the ‘real racing’.
Charles Byrnes won this on his local track last year, and will have primed both Sea Light (7.0) and Shanpallas (12.0) to have a go at decent prices.
YOUR MAN TO HIT THE BULL
4.55 Market Rasen Staying with the jumpers, there’s a class-2 here, in which The Tourard Man is a big price at 8.6 on BETDAQ as I write. Sometimes you have to take a punt when you have filled your wallet.
The Tourard Man turned over a Nicky Henderson hotpot in this very contest last year off the same mark but in a much stronger race, and will have been aimed at today’s renewal.
The Henderson this time around, Brave Eagle, only just got the better of the bridesmaid Wynford (four seconds running) going the other way round at Southwell, both of them quirky sorts.
Jack Devine has been smacked by the handicapper. Rise of 16lb for latest win is very tough.
Fingerontheswitch is a once-a-year horse and Psychedelic Rock has never won this far; in. fact, never run this far.
DAQMAN’S BETS
3.30 Deauville (win 20 and win 10)
BET 1.25pts win and place INTELLOGENT
BET 3.5pts win GUSTAV KLIMT
3.30 Fairyhouse (win 30)
BET 3pts win and place LINCOLN ROCKS
4.45 Limerick (win 10)
BET 1.5pts win SEA LIGHT
BET 1pt win SHANPALLAS
4.55 Market Rasen (win 50 nap)
BULL’S-EYE BET 5.75pts win and place THE TOURARD MAN
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