WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS? An aggrieved Daqman (or should that be aGreebed) is ‘talking through his pocket’ today, on his own admission, wondering what happened to his nap, Greeb, and 12 other favourites yesterday.
MOORE MAGIC AT HAYDOCK PLEASE: Today he relies on Ryan Moore at Haydock to land his best bet but thinks Sir Mark Prescott has a ‘Dolly catch’ at Newbury.
BACK TO THE BIG TIME TOMORROW: The racing hots up tomorrow with the start of the Sandown Eclipse meeting and a yankee of four BETDAQ-sponsored races at Doncaster.
MONKEY’S COUSIN: 12 FAVOURITES SECOND!
Hard luck? it happens every day! It’s the silly season, with the unadulterated dross called midweek racing getting weaker and weaker in quality, so the trade paper features a Newtonian list of famous gambles that went astray.
A nice twist, perhaps, the bathos and pathos of losing champions then champion losers, if ‘hard luck’ wasn’t happening every day.
Time after time, horses deemed to have a chance, in fact have no chance or don’t race as if they have.
There may well be reasons for poor performances, but these days we sometimes hear nothing from the Stewards, and not much afterwards from the Press; it’s all regarded as ‘part of the game.’
It’s now so bad that journalists report that they have nothing to report! Incredible but true. I refer you again to the Racing Post today.
The favourite, Greeb, drifted badly from odds on for a sprint at Thirsk in the afternoon (who else knew!) and trailed in last of eight, ‘weakening when hampered and eased,’ says the racereader.
I am not picking Greeb’s connections out, not picking on him, pointing or poking a finger (I’ll compile the whole shocking list when I want to do that).
I cite Greeb’s duck yesterday because of the comments in the ‘news’paper’s analysis at the end of the race: ‘He ran too badly to be true this time and presumably something went amiss.’
Is that it? Presumption. No Stewards’. No eager-beaver reporter wanting to know exactly what happened to our cash. Another favourite down the swanee is just another coin down the mouth of a greedy slot-machine?
Remarkably, TWELVE – yes 12 – favourites which lost yesterday finished SECOND. If you could have had an accumulator on such a sequence, you’d have won more money than Dave Nevison or Alex Bird near-missed in their famous hard-luck stories in that Post feature today.
Am I talking through my pocket? You bet I am. And yours. Yes, I know (I’m always saying it in this column), that low-level horses hardly ever run two races the same (or they would be higher-level horses).
But (memo to Stewards): ‘favourite’; means the horse most backed by the public in a race. Aren’t you always telling us that it’s the public you seek to please on your racecourses!
TWELVE seconds? A Cockney ‘monkey’s cousin’? You cannot be serious, as someone used to say at Wimbledon. We need some stronger stuff written about these things. New balls, please!
‘BIRDMAN’ MOORE CAN FLY IN AT HAYDOCK
2.20 Haydock Three-year-olds are gaining the upper hand as the season progresses and have won this four years out of five.
This race’s ‘most likely to’ is (appropriately for this column’s subject of the day) Goodby Inheritence, with trainer Seamus Durack three wins from seven at the turn of the month.
At least we were afforded a Press (Stewards?) inquiry as to why Casila ran so badly on the last day. Result? ‘Trainer could offer no explanation for the poor performance shown’ (Racing Post Haydock form Page 52).
3.20 Haydock Here come those nurseries (two-year-old handicaps) I was telling you about the other day. They come thick and fast now (translation: if you are thick; it’s a particularly fast way to lose your money).
Favourites? Yes; one won last year. Outsiders? Yes, one won at 20-1 the year before. Oh dear; system doing well; send more money.
I wouldn’t read much into the appearance of Wedge at Royal Ascot; the Zebedee roan ran as if it was a social engagement. Boing!
Ascot’s hero stallion of the meeting was at home in his box, or munching sweet grass in a field (or something else!) at the time: that stallion, Zoffany, had three big juvenile winners, and is represented here today by Bint Aldar.
4.20 Haydock Sir Michael Stoute needs another win out of Dannyday to get him rated into a decent handicap. Polarisation’s form figures suggest he is a bridesmaid but, in fact, is unexposed at this trip. Saver.
4.50 Haydock Take a look at the form for this one, and you’ll quickly gather that, even at class 3, you encounter some strange animals, lurking in the market place (and it’s not even the Ides Of March).
Amood: ‘jockey said colt stopped quickly as though something was amiss; Finn Class: ‘led riderless to the start’; Marcret: ‘soon struggling;’ Flow: ‘broke blood vessel, bled at the nose.’
Sounds like a race for a consistent horse (Birdman) with a consistent and reliable trainer (David O’Meara) and jockey (Ryan Moore). Nap.
‘DOLLY’ CATCH FOR PRESCOTT AT NEWBURY
8.10 Newbury If you can successfully find the Sir Mark Prescott sequence horses, you can sit back and let him win for you.
He doesn’t have so many these days, but – as is the way of them – Molly Doilly has been found another easy race in which to extend her run.
8.25 Epsom Three-year-olds do dramatically well in this, the best of them returning form figures of 11131. But it’s a race of front-runners.
Mark Johnston has won it twice, back to back, but Triple Dip will be attempting her fourth front-run in less than a month, and she will have North America and Dandy to deal with.
Dandy made all at Chepstow; North America nearly so, when he was the ‘moral’, beaten a short head giving weight to the winner at Nottingham.
Banditry catches the eye, visored first time, though he’s worn a hood before and still managed to get beat. He’s clear favourite this morning but is clearly a bit of a monkey (second, then?).
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength)
BET 5pts win GOODBY INHERITENCE (2.20 Haydock)
BET 4pts win BINT ALDAR (3.20 Haydock)
BET 7pts win DANNYDAY and 2pts win (stakes saver) POLARISATION (4.20 Haydock)
BET 9pts win (nap) BIRDMAN (4.50 Haydock)
BET 8pts win MOLLY DOLLY (8.20 Newbury)
BET 4pts win TRIPLE DIP (8.25 Epsom)
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