GREATS OF THE GREATEST WEEK: Daqman picked winners at Royal Ascot; now he picks the best of the best over the five days. Do you agree with his greatest finish, top horse, and best (and worst) riding performance!
PONTEFRACT NAP: Daqman heads to Pontefract for his Sunday nap in a 2m 2f handicap.
ASCOT: NOTHING BUT THE BEST
🥇 Best Finish In fact, best race of the meeting and best Gold Cup for years, with possibly the best battle since Grundy beat Bustino in the 1975 King George.
Though eight years old, the Cup holder, Trawlerman (William Buick) led for the entire 2m 4f until ‘Gold’ slipped from his grasp by just a head as Ryan Moore edged Scandinavia – half his age – past him on the line.
🥇 Best horse John Gosden would suffer Trawlerman’s Thursday defeat by Aidan O’Brien’s St Leger winner but the day before had the satisfaction of seeing Ombudsman overcome the 2025 Arc one-two, Daryz and Minnie Hauk (O’Brien).
🥇 Best trainer William Haggas for England beat the finest sprinters from Japan, Australia and France on Saturday, when his Almeraq (Tom Marquand) survived a four-way photo with Satano Reve, Joliestar and Stolen Kiss.
Haggas also won in the week with Alkobayyah, Earth Shot and Opportunity, and for me shares the training honours with the 7-5 family duel between Aidan O’Brien and son Joseph.
🥇 Best rider Joliestar’s jockey, James McDonald, was the deputy dawg when James Doyle discarded Opportunity in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes after the ITV team said that the one stall virtually ruled Opportunity out of the race.
Doyle’s move to Hopewell Rock (gate 8) made that one favourite, but the outcome was a cool rails ride by McDonald for a famous – or should that be ‘infamous’ – victory over Warrant Holder, taking his Opportunity with the son of Frankel, bred by the late Queen Elizabeth and owned by the current King and Queen.
🥇 Daqman best Another Aussie rider, Zac Lloyd, rode a peach of a finish in the 30-runner Britannia to get George Boughey’s Moonfall (BETDAQ 18.0) home over, appropriately, Outback Heat (14.5) at 13-2 and 10-1 SPs for a win-50 bull’s-eye and a 65-1 forecast.
.. and worst moment After an exaggerated rear run, Christophe Soumillon lost his irons, disputing second on Goliath in the Hardwicke Stakes, and was beaten less than two lengths.
SOLDIERING ON
⭕ 3.35 Pontefract Not quite as far as the concluding Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot yesterday but this 2m 2f trip around the ups and downs of Pontefract is still very much a specialist distance and you need to look for a horse that can see out the trip and beyond in my opinion as it’s a testing course.
There’s no doubting the current form of Trojan Soldier who arrives chasing a four-timer. For that run to continue he needs to win off a career high mark. He is 3-3 since being fitted with cheekpieces and couldn’t have been more impressive here last time when he won by four and a half lengths over the slightly shorter 2m 1f trip. He was still staying on strongly at the end to suggest that the extended distance may suit him even better.
Chief market rival on the Betdaq Betting Exchange is Secret Force who is now up in trip for the first time since joining the Adrian Paul Keatley stable. He was staying on to good effect when third in a class 3 at York last time out which was much better than his previous effort at Hamilton where he seemingly struggled for stamina over 1m 3f. He meets a rival with much fewer question marks today.
AZ GUIDE TO PONTEFRACT
⭕ 4.05 Pontefract A decent class 3 handicap which has also produced a very open betting market.
Azure Zain was a winner at Ascot last time out and has chances off a 3lb higher mark and in a better grade – although the Ascot race was probably equivalent to this by proxy. He’s had a short break which he seems to thrive on and in the absence of paper favourite Ray Mon Dough he should prove hard to beat and I’m staking to WIN 20 points.
Rock Opera was a good course and distance winner last time out but has to do it all again off a 5lb higher mark.
BULLET TO FIRE HOME
⭕ 4.56 Brighton If Pontefract is quirky make that double for Brighton – the helter-skelters are not confined to the sea front!
It’s very much a horses for courses track and the answer here could lie with the only previous course winner Rogue Bullet.
He has his first start for the in form yard of James Owen and gets the considerable assistance of Billy Loughnane in the saddle. The downside is that his very recent form has been poor so it’s a case of hoping the change in scenery and declining handicap mark will bring about an improvement.
It’s no exaggeration to say that ANY of the six runners could go off favourite in this tightly knit finale.
DAQMAN’S BETS
on Betdaq Betting Exchange
★ 3.35 Pontefract (win 10, nap)
BET 7.1pts win TROJAN SOLDIER
4.05 Pontefract (win 20)
BET 2.8pts win AZURE ZAIN
4.56 Brighton (win 10)
BET 2.5pts win ROGUE BULLET
What are points? Points facilitate a staking plan, which is the secret to creating profit. One point is whatever you choose: a pound, a euro, or whatever ….
Start with a bank and decide how much you can afford to lose over a period of time, and determine the size of your bets accordingly. Daqman makes this variation every day.
Did you know? DAQMAN’s tips are posted each and every day so he’s always on hand to help with your horse racing betting.
