DAQMAN HAS 7.0 AND 13.0 BETDAQ BETS FOR THE FRENCH OAKS: After Royal Ascot, Daqman’s target of 50 winners against Pricewise for the 2021 Flat season looks mean; he’s already on 37. The level-stakes gulf between them is now 463 points as they line up two bets each for the French Oaks at Chantilly today, with Daqman aiming 7.0 and 13.0 BETDAQ shots at the target.
DAQMAN 37, PRICEWISE 17
(Daqman + 230.14, Pricewise – 233.50)
SUPERNAPS 8-10 (80%)
LAYS LOGIC 9-13 (70%)
FORTUNE COOKIES 4-8 (50%)
NAPS (this week) 3-6 (50%)
ROYAL ASCOT WRAP: TOMORROW FORTUNE COOKIES: Daqman celebrates with the Royal Ascot champion jockey but wishes he would get over the line before he pops the cork. Tomorrow, he completes the royal wrap with revised Fortune Cookies. Well, which horses do you think merit following for the rest of the season?
MERCY! HOLD YOUR HORSES, MURPHY
You need to get down safely. That’s my message to Oisin Murphy, as I recall the wartime true story of the spy who was given a lift out of occupied territory in a small private aircraft, kept really low to avoid detection.
A truly heroic journey was nearing its end, and he congratulated the pilot on a brilliant piece of flying, but was stunned by the reply: ‘Thanks, though I wouldn’t speak too soon; I’ve never landed one of these things on my own before.’
As Oisin Murphy was about to land yet another big winner at Ascot yesterday, he allowed Foxes Tales to veer from the far rail halfway across the track in front of the field.
Not for the first time had the champion failed to make a perfect touchdown. Only the day before, he was involved in two incidents, one no doubt costing him the race.
He finished first on Dragon Symbol in the Commonwealth Cup but bore right into Frankie Dettori on Campanelle, bumping him twice and taking them both several yards off course.
The Stewards had no choice but to award the race to Campanelle with Dettori offering faint praise to Murphy afterwards, that Dragon Symbol was the better horse on the day.
Later on the card, as Murphy pulled up after the winning post, he lost the reins momentarily and his horse tried to jink him out of the side door for a crash landing.
Some phantasmagoria of the adrenalin seems to affect certain jockeys at the end of a race when victory is in sight; they seem to imagine they have arrived before it’s actually happened.
Murphy must calm his euphoric high to a level of concentration which guarantees a safe and victorious finish. He must save the star burst until afterwards, as does Dettori himself with the famous flying leap.
Notoriously, Mickael Barzalona stood up in the saddle yards frøm the line and waved his stick in triumph before Pour Moi’s 2011 Derby victory and almost threw the greatest race away.
It actually happened in the 1957 Kentucky Derby. Hall-of-Fame rider Bill Shoemaker, ironically on Gallant Man, stood up to celebrate before the line.
Shoemaker’s anticipating victory before it was won caused Gallant Man to slow and give the Derby to Iron Leige by a nose.
It happens in Jumps racing, too. I call it the Final-Fence Syndrome. I was winning a year’s pay when my horse came to the last well clear in the Welsh Grand National but, instead of presenting the tired animal to the obstacle, the jockey went for a big one at racing speed and t hey toppled over on the landing side.
Some would argue that slowing to effect a defined leap might have caused the horse to falter or pull himself up.
More pilot error. One famous jumps jockey was notorious for falling at the last with the race seemingly won.
More another time on that one when I’ve bought a protective suit of armour.
But no doubt in my mind that the same phantasmagoria of victory changed his mental approach to the fence and the beasts beneath responded with regular nose-dives.
FILL UP YOUR WALLET ON PHILOMENE
⭕ 3.00 Chantilly (Prix De Diane) Aidan O’Brien has plundered the French colts’ Classics with both Guineas and Derby to St Mark’s Basilica.
Now here comes a French Oaks swoop by Gleneagles sister Joan of Arc, beaten only a short head on heavy in the Irish 1,000 Guineas.
To my cost, the winner at the Curragh that day, Empress Josephine, did the form no favours in the Coronation Stakes on Friday, and the Ballydoyle raid on Longchamp came unstuck in the French 1,000 Guineas when Mother Earth was outrun by Coeursamba.
Coeursamba’s family has plenty of Flat-race stamina up to and including today’s 1m 2f plus, and there’s a half-sister who won 2m 1f hurdles.
Her trainer, Jean-Claude Rouget, is leading the French table with 67 winners and more than £2.5m euros won.
Incarville won the Saint-Alary (1m 2f) at Longchamp in the final strides by a head from Cirona. Incarville had been beaten over a similar trip by Andre Fabre’s Philomene, who found the 1,000 Guineas too short for her.
Philomene is a Dubawi out of a Dansili mare and so a half-sister to Irish Oaks winner, Chicquita (1m 4f).
The Philomene stable of Andre Fabre also saddles Burgarita who beat Natsukashi (1m 3f) at Longchamp) but both are drawn out wide in stalls 14 and 16 today. Eight of the last 10 winners have come from single-figure stalls.
That suggests Joan Of Arc (5), Cirona (7), Philomene (8) and Coeursamba (9) have a big advantage. I’ll add another Rouget filly, Light Stars (from gate 3), a Sea The Stars filly bred for stamina.
BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE value 7 Philomene and 13.0 Light Stars.
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.55 Pontefract (win 10 at 3.8)
BET 3.5pts win ICONIC QUEEN
3.00 Chantilly (win 50 bull’s-eye bets)
BET 8.25pts win PHILOMENE
BET 4.25pts win LIGHT STARS
4.35 Worcester (win 28, place win 5)
BET 1pt win and place LET’S GET REAL
5.25 Pontefract (win 20 nap)
BET 2.5pts win ABDUCTION
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.
