SUNDAY BIG-RACE DOUBLE BID: Daqman’s landed a winner at a decent price in the two days of Easter so far. Now he wants a National and a Champion Hurdle double from the holiday meetings at Ffos Las and Plumpton this afternoon.
WON 6-1 CALIFORNIA SPANGLE (Saturday)
WON 7-2 INSPIRITUS (Friday)
TOMORROW: Daqman’s verdict on the Irish Grand National
IT’S FUN TO FOLLOW MULLINS
⭕ 2.35 Fairyhouse (Honeysuckle Mares’ Novice Hurdle) It was 2019 when Honeysuckle won this, her first Grade 1 in this first Graded race of the Irish Grand National meeting. It would be the first of her 13 consecutive strikes at the top level.
Henry De Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore, synonymous with her success, line up the Getaway mare Theatre Native, hooded and seemingly with a lot to do but the best backed outsider when books opened.
Willie Mullins, who has won four of the last six renewals, sends out a 10-strong team of mares!
You imagine this would be two-miler but, look again at the racehead, then at the card for the magic letters CD. It’s 2m 4f so you need a strong, experienced novice.
Jade De Grugy has won at 2m 2f and 2m 4f and was denied a first-three place in the Dawn Run at the Cheltenham Festival only because her ground was taken at a vital stage of a 17f race.
Pink In The Park, second to Jetara at Leopardstown, was only fourth behind Jade De Grugy here at Fairyhouse, drawing a line between them.
Jade’s stablemate, Fun Fun Fun, has won exclusively over the minimum but she’s bred for another mile! Martaline out of a Presenting mare, related to high-class chasers Yorkhill and The Listener.
STREAMING A NATIONAL DOUBLE
⭕ 3.25 Ffos Las (West Wales National) Surrey National winner of 2022 and Eider Chase runner-up 2023, The Galloping Bear is back.
He led for 14 fences in this year’s Eider just over a month ago and is down 10lb overall since that first Eider.
Amateur’s form is 113 in this West Wales National, quickly following up last year’s third in the failed hat-trick bid with another Ffos Las victory over today’s CD.
But, like one-time Porterstown winner Punitive – recently moved from Gordon Eliott to Peter Bowen – Amateur has failed to finish the last twice, and The Galloping Bear has incurred the dreaded ‘P’ for ‘pulled up’ three times in his last four runs.
An off-putting UOP was no barrier to Peter Bowen’s Henri Parry Morgan taking this prize in 2018. He wore blinkers first time, and Punitive today swaps blinkers for the visor.
‘PP’ which fronted and affronted Well Dick didn’t stop him scoring at Warwick three weeks back. But his wins have always been at least three months apart.
All three of Amateur, Punitive and The Galloping Bear are of double-figure age, ranged together at the top of the handicap, giving weight to four with victory as their most recent form-figure.
Art Decco, Pimlico Point and Stellar Stream, every one, scored the last day, Stellar also with the benefit of first-time blinkers. Pimlico Point beat only two other finishers, more than a minute slow at Exeter.
Art Decco has won back to back over different distances at different tracks, but he’s been hiked a stone and is 0-7 going left-handed.
Stellar Stream’s runner-up in his North Wales National at Bangor has scored six lengths since, boosting his chances of a National double off a light weight today.
Betdaq Betting Exchange 3.95 Stellar Stream
CHAMP CHANCE ON GOOD GOING
⭕ 4.15 Plumpton (Sussex Champion Hurdle) Last year’s winner, Teddy Blue, is back for more, with the ground reportedly drying in his favour.
But he’s had half a dozen chances of more since that day and done nothing to suggest to me that he should be favourite in this.
Rare Middleton had to be dropped back to the class-4 level of his debut win to belatedly score at Doncaster in December but Paul Nicholls has won this three times since 2015 and the five-year-old is likely to have improved for a 107-day holiday, with this as his target.
Aucunrisque, the 2022 winner, was third, three lengths off Teddy Blue last year. He’s dropped 10lb to within a pound of his Grade-3 winning rating at Newbury last February.
His stablemate, Our Champ, won at Cheltenham last time he encountered good ground and soon after scoring here at Plumpton, but then – perhaps coming out again too soon – was hammered on soft in a class 2 at Ascot won by Knickerbockerglory.
Gin Coco is 21121 on a sound surface and is preferred to amateur-ridden Too Friendly, 3112 on good ground but both have to improve in this company.
BETDAQ value 4.9 Our Champ, 5.6 Rare Middleton
WAIT BEFORE YOU PLAY AN ACE
⭕ 5.39 Market Rasen Dan Skelton has six chances today but plays one for the future last on his cards, Ace Of Spades, 3.3 on BETDAQ at time of writing but likely to challenge Wade Out for favouritism.
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.35 Fairyhouse (win 30, win 10)
BET 6pts win FUN FUN FUN
BET 5pts win JADE DE GRUGY
3.25 Ffos Las (win 30)
BET 10pts win STELLAR STREAM
4.15 Plumpton (win 20)
BET 5pts win OUR CHAMP
BET 4.25pts win RARE MIDDLETON
5.39 Market Rasen (win 20 nap)
BET 9pts win ACE OF SPADES
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