TREBLE OF SATURDAY BIG-RACE RETURNS: Daqman had a return from all three big Saturday races, the winners of the London Gold Cup and French Champion Hurdle, and the 33-1 third in the Lockinge Stakes, extending his lead over Pricewise of the Racing Post: 22 winners to 10.
WON 9-2 BERTINELLI (London Gold Cup, BETDAQ)
WON 6-4 THELEME (French Champion Hurdle BETDAQ)
WON (3rd 33-1) BERKSHIRE SHADOW (Lockinge Stakes win and place)
TODAY: The French Grand National for a fourth weekend big-race strike?
NEXT WEEK: The very last Derby trial, but do we already know the winner?
MACAIRE PLOT AT BETDAQ 16.5
⭕ 3.05 Auteuil (Grand Steeplechase de Paris) This 3m 6f former French Grand National was famously won in 1962 by Fred Winter, riding the Fulke Walwyn trained Mandarin.
Things were so different in England then: poverty and rationing; pollution; mass vaccination; and a coronation!
I preferred horses to humanity, even in those days; waving my rattle from my pram for Mandarin’s English victory ‘on the continent’, as eurosceptics of the day called it.
Captain Christy was second in 1975 but England and Ireland have not had a Grand Steeplechase winner since Mandarin claimed the 12th foreign victory, otherwinning raiders including Jerry M and Troytown, who were also winners of the Aintree Grand National.
But the recent blank sheet ignores the triumphs of riders Philip Carberry (2006 and 2008), Davy Russell (2019) and the Brit who is French champion jockey, James Reveley (2016-18) for Guillaume Macaire.
Macaire has won it six times, including last year (Sel Jem) with training partner Hector de Lageneste.
Franco de Port, 13-lengths third to Sel Jem for Willie Mullins, is back for more, but so, too, the runner-up, Gex, who returned to form over a mile shorter the last day.
Macaire’s secret is to prepare five-year-olds for the race; they’ve won it five times in the last nine years.
And here he goes again with the mare Altesse Du Berlais, whose prolific sire, Martaline, has produced the likes of Dynaste, Snow Leopardess and Vanillier.
Five-year-olds get an allowance of 4lb but a mare gets 9lb. Former champion jockey and ace trainer, David Cottin, has spotted this, too, and he runs another five-year-old mare, Gessy Raiselle, and has booked Rachael Blackmore.
Gessy Raiselle was stone last of seven behind Gex in a Grade 2 last month (2m 6f), when Metasequoia was second and Starlet Du Mesnil fourth, Doctor Squeeze fifth, General En Chef (another Cottin) sixth.
In a Grade 3 in March, the Prix Troytown, celebrating the Irish-trained winner of today’s race, was won by Rosario Baron, with Starlet Du Mesnil fourth, Gessy Raiselle fifth and Poly Grandchamp seventh.
Willie Mullins also runs Thyestes winner on heavy Carefully Selected – he’s 11 now – but his nephew, Emmet Mullins, must have the outstanding chance among the raiders: he saddles Noble Yeats, fourth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, fourth in the Grand National. But is he the same horse, after two gruelling experiences?
Betdaq Betting Exchange (check for movement in these offers): 3.9 Gex, 4.3 Noble Yeats, 8.2 Franco De Port, 14 Carefully Selected, 16 Rosario Baron, 16.5 Altesse Du Berlais, 31 Gessy Raiselle
DAQMAN’S 1-2-3-4 Altesse Du Berlais, Gex, Noble Yeats, Gessy Raiselle
MOON SHINES AT THE WEIGHTS
⭕ 2.15 Naas (Listed Sprint) Moss Tucker is the star player after beating British Champions fifth, Tenebrism, here at Naas the last day. But that was on soft-heavy ground. Today it’s on the firm side of good.
Joseph O’Brien, who won the race with a three-year-old a year ago, saddles the newly-acquired Mooneista, who steps down from Group company for the first time in more than a year.
Mooneista (BETDAQ 4.0), an 850,000gns buy, is 9lb better off for a short-head defeat by Ladies Church on their one-two in the Sapphire Stakes at The Curragh last July.
And, under the conditions of the race, the mare gets 8lb from Tees Spirit, though that one is officially 5lb behind her in the ratings.
⭕ 3.55 Ripon Mr Buster ran a subsequent five-lengths winner to a neck in April. Bred in the purple by Sea The Stars out of a Sadlers Wells mare, we can expect much much more from the Ralph Beckett gelding, stepped up in trip. Around 2.2 this morning.
⭕ 4.45 Naas National Emblem readily beat a four-time winner at Gowran Park as a juvenile and here receives weight from the obvious favourite, Broadhurst. Big at 7.9 on BETDAQ, with 3.8 Broadhurst as saver.
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.15 Naas (win 20, nap)
BET 6.5pts win MOONIESTA
3.05 Auteuil (win-50 bull’s-eye bets)
BET 3pts win ALTESSE DU BERLAIS
BET 1.6pts win GESSY RAISELLE
BET 3pts each (to win 10) GEX, NOBLE YEATS
3.55 Ripon (win 10)
BET 9pts win MR BUSTER
4.45 Naas (win 20)
BET 3pts win NATIONAL EMBLEM
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