24-1 DOUBLE AND ALL THREE BIG-RACE WINNERS: After winning 60 points in two races on Friday, Daqman scooped 130 points from two singles and a 24-1 double in the three big races yesterday:
WON 8-1 DEFOE (London Gold Cup, single and double)
WON 3-1 EKHTIYAAR (single, from 6.0 on BETDAQ)
WON 7-4 RIBCHESTER (Lockinge Stakes, doubles only)
46-POINT MARGIN OVER PRICEWISE RESTORED: Daqman had suffered a fightback at York from Pricewise of the Racing Post but yesterday restored the deficit in their challenge and went 46 points clear to a single-unit level stake. The score of winning bets is now:
25 Daqman
08 Pricewise
ONLY THE BEST WILL DO FOR DAQMAN: Today Daqman goes to Auteuil, Naas and Market Rasen to stay with only the best of racing. Today he’s among two-year-olds of top potential, hurdlers and grand steeplechasers in Paris. Not to mention Caravaggio.
IT’S SURREAL! DALI A NEW STAR
3.15 Naas We haven’t had a summer yet (let me know if it happens) and we haven’t had a northern-hemisphere Derby, except in America.
But, unlike over the jumps where the horses remain with us for a generation, the reverse is the case on the Flat: the Classic equine generations roll over each other in a matter of weeks.
Believe it or not, this two-year-old test at Naas today was part of seven wins in a row for New Approach, who would go on to win the 2013 running of the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.
And last year’s winner of this, Peace Envoy, has a date in Saturday’s Irish 2,000 Guineas at The Curragh. The next generation is on the march already.
But some things are hard to change. Dali (3.55 on BETDAQ this morning) for Aidan O’Brien and True Blue Moon for Joseph (ridden by Donnacha) represent the dominant Irish Classics clan for many years now, and many more maybe.
It’s a return match from their meeting at Dundalk when Dali was the ‘moral’, just failing by half a length to give True Blue Moon 3lb
Richard Fahey, back to form with Ribchester’s romp in the Lockinge yesterday, dares a ‘don’t forget the English’, with Simmy’s Copshop, albeit out of an Irish mare with an Irish-born trainer and an Irish jockey. But that’s another neverending story.
ACTRESS ROLE REVERSAL BID
3.45 Naas Future Coronation Stakes winner Lillie Langtry (O’Brien in 2009) won her first race in this second juvenile heat of the afternoon.
And in 2012 it went to the following season’s Newmarket 1,000 Guineas winner, Sky Lantern.
But, though O’Brien has won it three times since 2007, the race’s top man, wins to runs, is Gentleman Jim Bolger, successful three years out of four (2008-11)
One of them, Cuis Ghaire (2008), was making her debut in this fillies’ Listed, like Jim’s unraced Gasta this afternoon.
But, like the race before this one, the chief protagonists have already fought out a one-two. This time there’s no weights help for runner-up Actress (O’Brien, 3.5 offers in the orange) to overturn a two-and-a-half lengths defeat by Jessica Harrington’s Alpha Centauri.
The Alpha filly seemed to beat Actress easily over the Naas CD on the first day of the month, albeit on firm ground, whereas today’s surface is likely to have some ease in it.
You can’t always take the form literally at this stage of their careers. In the words of Aidan O’Brien, she may have only just been ready to ‘start out’ that day.
Aidan’s language is now copied by most jockeys in their TV interviews. As well as the use of ‘starting out’, they grab your earnest attention with ‘Look, now’ or ‘Listen’ before imparting their knowledge from the saddle. It’s very effective.
But I wonder what Flann O’Brien would have said in his Irish Times column. I don’t have the wit to do him justice. Unfortunately, no one else does these days.
But t’was ever thus. Else why did he (Brian O’Nolan, himself) found a sardonic magazine and call it Blather..
CARAVAGGIO ADDS THE COLOUR
4.15 Naas Wait for it! Biggest draw of the day is the return of one-time Newmarket Guineas favourite, Caravaggio. Likely long odds on, but clearly everything has not gone right.
His entries are all over the place from the Guineas on Saturday (surely misses that) to the Kings Stand champion sprint at Royal Ascot.
If, indeed, sprinting at the royal meeting is the new direction for this Coventry Stakes winner then he must get a move on here, both speed wise and fitness wise. He hasn’t much to beat but has to beat them well.
That Coventry now looks as threadbare as when Lady Godiva won it! The second home hasn’t been seen this year; the third was 12th of 15 in a Listed at Navan in April and the fourth was last of 10 in a recent Newmarket handicap.
THE SECRET OF RASEN SUCCESS
3.30 Market Rasen Not quite in Chester’s league for the size and splendor of its revamps, but Market Rasen, which has pinched the summer spot of top racing over the sticks, was one of the first to think of landing strip, racecourse hotel and family amenities.
Top attraction is the Summer Plate of July 22 and you may get some clues for that day from this handicap, albeit with softish terrain this afternoon and likely top of the ground in July.
Lucinda Russell (Sky Khan) and Nicky Henderson (Minstrel Royal) have around 30% strike rates for this, in each case their sole starter of the day.
Sky Khan won twice at Rasen in 2015 and was back to form on the last day. Minstrel Royal broke his duck in slow time at Warwick but could come on for that.
Secret Door won a mares’ hurdle series final at Haydock.This is a bit further but on a less demanding track, and she looks to have a touch of class.
The course should suit Ben Pauling’s pace runner Expedite. Nico De Boinville rode a winner for the Bourton yard only the other day at Towcester.
Work In Progress will probably try to make all the running but this is further than when he finished alone in first-time tongue strap at Fontwell. Sigurd and Shimla Dawn (first-time hood) are CD winners. I took 5.8 Secret Door and 9.4 Sky Khan.
IMPULSE BET FOR BIG BUCKS
3.10 Auteuil (Grand Steeplechase De Paris) Last year’s winner So French, with James Reveley riding for Guillaume Macaire, has the beating of a whole bunch of these on April form.
He just about has the measure of bottomweight Perfect Impulse on a line through Shannon Rock but this Poliglote mare is the granddaughter of Cadoudal, sire of Long Run and Big Buck’s and ‘could be anything’, three wins from four and still improving at the age of only five.
DAQMAN’S BETS
3.10 Auteuil
BET 5pts win PERFECT IMPULSE
3.15 Naas
BET 7.75pts win (nap) DALI
3.30 Market Rasen
BET 4pts win SECRET DOOR
BET 2.4pts win and place SKY KHAN
3.40 Ripon
BET 3.5pts win KNIGHT OWL
3.45 Naas
BET 8pts win ACTRESS
NAAS DAQ MULTIPLES
BET 2pts win treble Dali (3.15) Actress (3.45), Caravaggio (4.15)
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.
