18-1 HIT IN DAQMAN NATIONAL DOUBLE: Daqman warned you on Friday that MacDermott was best of Willie Mullins’ Scottish Grand National runners and yesterday he made the 18-1 shot his second National winner after I Am Maximus at Aintree only a week earlier. He charged into Ayr with Sharjah at 7-1 and made 35 points profit on the big day.
Scottish National day profit: 35.25
WON 7-1 SHARJAH (Scottish Champion Novice)
WON 18-1 MACDERMOTT (Scottish Grand National)
Grand National double: 110.75 profit Aintree 3 days
WON 7-1 I AM MAXIMUS (Aintree Grand National)
WON 18-1 MACDERMOTT (Scottish Grand National)
A BULL’S-EYE BET RUNS TODAY: Daqman goes into Musselburgh today leading Pricewise 14-10 and in at the deep end with a bull’s-eye bet. Terrestrial TV also covers the Gladness meeting the Curragh.
MULLINS MAGIC WEEK BY WEEK
SEEING DOUBLE! Daqman’s National double was Willie Mullins’, too, putting him in pole position for the British trainers’ title.
Another week to Sandown where he is odds-on to secure enough of £675k in prizemoney against the English contenders, Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls.
MULLINS A 4,462-1 Ayr four-timer puts him on £3,082,892
SKELTON 285-1 Friday treble but only places yesterday: £2,903,214
NICHOLLS 55-1 double on Friday; one place yesterday: £2,805,409
TODAY: Paul Nicholls runs six at Wincanton; Skelton just one at Stratford; Mullins two at Tramore but none in Britain until tomorrow at Ffos Las. He has 16 entries at Ludlow, Perth and Uttoxeter on Wednesday.
⭕ 1.57 Wincanton Paul Nicholls drops Irish Hill down a grade for the first time since his new-year’s day win in 2023.
That was the middle of a hat-trick which shot him up the ratings 18lb and he did not slip back to that mark until a good third to a dual winner at Kempton in March. I took 2.32 on BETDAQ a home win for Irish Hill.
HENRY ADAMS BACK ON TURF
⭕ 4.00 Curragh (Lester Piggott Gladness Stakes) Henry Adams, who failed to cope with a very fast dirt surface in the UAE Derby, was last year seen behind the two most talked about 2,000 Guineas colts, City of Troy in the Dewhurst and Rosallion in the Lagardere.
City Of Troy will have nothing to fear from yesterday’s Greenham, when five horses finished within a length-and-a-half of each other, the winner out of 6f-7f pedigree.
Among them was Son, stablemate of Richard Hannon’s Craven Stakes winner, Haatem, with my Hannon man’s succinct verdict: ‘Rosallion works better at home.’
Heavy ground will suit Mutassaref but his penalties mean he has to give weight all round, without a run.
Jumbly, who was an easy favourite this morning, drops back from Group-1 campaigning in America but is a five-year-old mare rated 3lb inferior to three-years-old Henry Adams but giving him weight.
So main danger might be Yosemite Valley, 4lb better with Big Gossey for threeparts of a length on their one-two here at the Curragh over the same trip in similar conditions in November.
⭕ 4.30 Curragh Laugh A Minute has three times won over the Curragh minimum on soft and is better off with Harry’s Hill, whom he beat a head in September.
Mickey The Steel was fourth, two lengths off the lead, but had Two Stars fourth and Laugh A Minute fifth behind him in November. I leave that puzzle to you.
Betdaq Betting Exchange 3.3 Henry Adams (4.00 race)
INDIVIDUALISM IS A STAND-OUT
⭕ 5.45 Musselburgh Ice Max is so punished for scoring at Bath on heavy that he would have had to give the withdrawn Cerulean Bay 11lb here in different conditions.
Individualism would have received 8lb, which would have put them neck and neck on July form last year. His 2.44 offers on BETDAQ are welcome.
There are other reasons for thinking his 86 mark lenient in this company, not least the step up in trip for a half-brother to a Gold Cup winner.
I can see him making all, which was daringly tried in the expanses of Newmarket against Zoum Zoum, when that one was in the middle of a hat-trick and came to the new season on 104.
⭕ 6.15 Musselburgh Lion Tower is 2-2 on this track, both over CD, and has won a grade higher in class 2. BETDAQ 5.1 taken.
He’s down a stone since those days, and the one stall has won this twice in the last five years; gate 2 also twice.
That brings in Gincident (BETDAQ 9.6), a winner off today’s mark last April at Musselburgh and, down in the weights at last, beaten only a neck at Southwell in March.
Liamarty Dreams was a CD winner last June but is now back on a mark he’s struggled with, after scoring at Doncaster on the soft in March.
EQUALITY? NO DAQMAN 14-10 UP
⭕ 6.45 Musselburgh Equality won in April two years running before stepping up to Group company last term.
He ended last season third in the Flying Five at the Curragh before having a crack at the Abbaye.
Equality returns to handicaps after six starts at Group level, including get-fit holidays in Meydan. He has finished 131 in his last three handicaps in class-2 company.
Bull’s-eye bet at 4.9 on BETDAQ, with the scores Daqman 14, Pricewise 10 in the battle for winning value. I left a bit more in and ‘asked’ for a shade more.
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.57 Wincanton (win 12, nap)
BET 9pts win IRISH HILL
4.00 Curragh (win 10)
BET 4.4pts win HENRY ADAMS
5.45 Musselburgh (win 10)
BET 7pts win INDIVIDUALISM
6.15 Musselburgh (win 20)
BET 5pts win LION TOWER
BET 2.25pts win GINCIDENT
6.45 Musselburgh (win-50 bull’s-eye bet)
BET 12pts win EQUALITY
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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.
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