6-1 NAP: EASY TO BACK, EASY WINNER! Daqman almost turned away from the screen as his nap drifted to 9.4 when it lined up at Kempton last night and 9.9 as it trailed the field from the ‘off.’ But La Tihaty swept down the outside in the closing stages to score easily at 6-1, and suggest he’s one to follow.
DAQMAN’S PRE-CHELTENHAM DIARY: You don’t have to wait until Cheltenham for more big hitters from Daqman. There are quality weekends of racing in January and February, which are betting targets for supernaps and bull’s-eye bets. He’s had six naps in a row; six Fortune Cookies on the trot; and a run of wins over Pricewise (he leads 20-12)
DAQMAN TARGETS BIG RACES
🎯 BETTING TARGETS: Daqman has been scoring freely on a diet of local meetings but his big-race betting focuses on Fortune Cookies and feature races up to 50-point strikes.
In the process of finding value on the BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE, which has given him a 20-12 lead over Pricewise, he has built up a dossier of major events and where the winners come from. Here’s his current diary:
⭕ 2.25 Sandown, Saturday Tolworth Novices Hurdle (2m Grade 1, winner £40,000). Nicky Henderson has produced quality horses from this and on Saturday has the likely favourite in Constitution Hill. Will this be a supernap for Daqman, or is there a ‘hidden horse’ deserving of a win-50 bet?
⭕ 3.00 Sandown Veterans Handicap Chase Final 3m, winner £51,000). Seems sure to be a race for the best outsider.
⭕ 2.20 Fairyhouse, Sunday Dan and Joan Moore Memorial Chase (2m 1f Grade A, e47,000): 15 left in; winners at 10-1 and 20-1 in the last two seasons.
MARATHON CLASSIC NEXT WEEK
⭕ 2.05 Kempton, Saturday, January 15 Silviniaco Conti Chase (2m 4.5f Grade 2, £80,000 prizemoney)
⭕ 2.40 Kempton Lanzarote Hurdle (2m 5f Listed, £100,000)
⭕ 3.00 Warwick Classic (3m 5f chase, £100,000)
WINTER MILLION AT LINGFIELD
⭕ 3.35 Ascot, Saturday, January 22 Clarence House Chase (2m 1f, Grade 1, £150,000)
⭕ 2.35 Haydock Peter Marsh Chase (3m 1.5f, Grade 2, £75,000)
⭕ 3.40 Lingfield Winter Oaks (1m 2f Flat, £100,000)
⭕ 2.25 Lingfield, Sunday, January 23 Winter Million Hurdle (2m 3.5f, £100,000)
⭕ 3.00 Lingfield Winter Million Chase (2m 6f, £150,000)
* Winter Million weekend is now Lingfield’s main winter/Spring meeting before the Derby/Oaks trials. Good Friday AW Championships finals day moves from Lingfield to Newcastle.
⭕ 3.25 Gowran Park, Thursday, January 27 Thyestes Chase (3m 1f Grade A, e60,000 to the winner)
TRIALS DAY AT CHELTENHAM
⭕ 1.55 Cheltenham, Saturday, January 29 PP Chase (2m 4.5f, Grade 2, £120,000 prizemoney)
⭕ 2.30 Cheltenham Cotswold Chase (3m 1.5f, Grade 2, £120,000)
⭕ 3.20 Doncaster Great Yorkshire Chase (3m, £100,000)
FEBRUARY DUBLIN FESTIVAL
⭕ Dublin Festival Leopardstown Saturday, February 5: Irish Arkle; Irish Gold Cup. Sunday February 6: Irish Champion Hurdle, Leopardstown Chase.
🗓️ TOMORROW: the range of bets and staking plans in Daqman’s Betting Targets.
HATS OFF TO HATOS
⭕ 1.10 Chepstow There’s plenty of early money about for Ballybeen which has changed the dynamics of the market. He now looks too short and conversely the price of his key rivals now look tempting.
Ballybeen still has plenty to prove on the formbook. Since joining the Sam Thomas yard he has been beaten 21 lengths coincidentally in BOTH his races at Chepstow and Exeter and is unproven on today’s forecast heavy ground. With his odds getting less than 2/1 in mid-morning trading I can’t entertain him at that price tag.
Drenagh returned from a 647 day break to finish a good second at Bangor last month but whether he’ll ‘bounce’ backwards after that remains to be seen and in any case he needs to find more improvement.
Hatos could be the bet with the Anthony Honeyball stable flying (4 winners from their last 11 runners). He was placed in an Irish point on debut and then a good third at Chepstow in a bumper here last month.
There are many factors we have to take on trust. It’s his hurdling debut and it will be a lot softer than at the early December meeting here but that’s more than factored into the price now given the support for the (in my view) vulnerable favourite.
MARY NOT QUITE SO CONTRARY
⭕ 2.15 Chepstow An interesting novices’ hurdle in which I’m sticking with Dom Of Mary as today’s nap.
After a point win and a bumper win in Ireland (the latter on today’s heavy ground), he made a pleasing first start for David Bridgwater when finishing fourth to Pull Again Green at Newbury.
He was weak in the market (12/1 > 16/1) that day but ran a solid race in what looked a decent race – the winner went on to finish fourth in a Listed race at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day.
It’s hard to know what to expect from Crossing Lines who makes his belated rules debut having shown great promise over points but that was two years ago and the David Pipe stable are not yet in top gear.
The danger may come from Mahon Point whose bumper third here looks reasonable and he looks interesting on hurdling debut – if coping with the deeper ground.
I PLEDGE TO FIND A WINNER
⭕ 7.00 Chelmsford A very modest card in Essex tonight but Pledge Of Honour looked interesting in this 10 furlong handicap which might be easier to land with Lingfield winner Semser a non runner.
Pledge Of Honour was beaten a length and a half when fourth over course and distance last time out and now drops a grade. As a bonus the handicapper has also dropped him a pound!
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 10 points)
BET 3.1pts win HATOS (1.10 Chepstow)
BET 6.6pts win DOM OF MARY (nap) (2.15 Chepstow)
BET 3.0pts win PLEDGE OF HONOUR (7.00 Chelmsford)
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.
