ROYAL ASCOT COUNTDOWN: Huge lists of runners for the big handicaps at Royal Ascot are bewildering but Daqman sees a window for winners in the Wokingham Stakes next Saturday.
THE LONG WEEKEND OF WINNERS: There are a total of 16 meetings tomorrow and Saturday at the start of the long weekend before Ascot on Tuesday. There are 99 winners on the cards.
ASCOT HANDICAPS:
PLAY IT AGAIN ON BOGART
SATURDAY
Handicaps have bigger odds but look more difficult. They need not be so hard. As well as the Royal Hunt Cup, Ascot has the Wokingham, with your chances good at finding the winner if you concentrate on high-rank ratings.
A high 73% (11 of the last 15) Wokingham winners were officially racing off a narrow 8lb parameter of between 95 to 102 on the day.
Catching the eye off 102 and 98 respectively are Hallelujah and Bogart. Both have had one run each this season, from mid-May on, prepping perfectly and remaining fresh for this huge prize.
Hallelujah (James Fanshawe), a Listed winner at York, also won at Newbury on firm. Bogart runs for Kevin Ryan and, whatever happens for the rest of the year, Ryan’s French Derby with The Grey Gatsby will keep a halo firmly fixed around his Hambleton stable.
Bogart is the yard’s second to top earner, behind Gatsby, a few bob in front of Astaire, as winner of two £100,000-plus penalty-value races. He won one of his big sprint handicaps on firm ground.
JUPITER BETTER THAN BETDAQ 13.0 CHANCE
2.20 Newbury Not a single professional jockey at Newbury today will ride a horse older than three, with only the last race open to all age groups, and that one’s for amateurs.
The spotlight is on fillies and a lot lot hinges on the change of ground to, potentially, the firm side of good in the forecast sunshine of this afternoon.
The progeny of Sea The Stars are a in clover on sunbaked terrain, which could help us choose the right one in this race.
Some 15 of his 21 winners have needed good or firm, and his top scorers are all fillies bar one (Shamkiyr, the French Derby runner-up) with, obviously, Taghrooda top of the list, followed by Vazira, My Titania and, appropriately, Afternoon Sunlight.
So I shall have a pound on Sea The Stars’ daughter, By Jupiter (2.20), whose dam’s best produce are also fillies, headed by Coronation Stakes winner, Indian Ink. Step up in trip will suit. I took 13.0 on BETDAQ, early mouse.
3.25 Newbury John Gosden has quality fillies in depth this year, from Taghrooda down. It’s still a dangerous play, backing his Eastern Belle, as the only maiden in a field that contains winners of 16 races.
Collateral form suggests a direct link between this Gosden belle and her Oaks-winning stablemate, Taghrooda.
Jordan Princess, stone last when Eastern Belle was second in the Height Of Fashion Stakes at Goodwood, had earlier run second to Taghrooda in the Pretty Polly Stakes.
But it might just as well be said that the Height of Fashion winner (Marsh Daisy) was then 22 lengths behind Taghrooda in the Oaks. In fact the Goodwood trial, run on soft ground, did not suit most of the field.
Two and two seemingly make five, and the number 5 on this card is trained by Ralph Beckett, who has as much claim to be fillies’ supremo as Gosden. But Beckett is worried about the firming ground for his runner, Kallisha.
So I’ll stick with Jordan Princess, whose sire, Cape Cross, gets winners who love to hear their feet rattle. Her trainer, Luca Cumani, is back in form with four successes since the turn of the month.
4.30 Newbury Some trainers reach for the blinkers as soon as frustration sets in with a horse. Patrick Chamings uses these aids with distinction.
He has booked Silvestre De Sousa for the Double Czech (20.0 on BETDAQ this morning), hoping the visors will add to the stable’s two-from–three record with the blinds.
5.25 Yarmouth/5.35 Newbury Trainers are creatures of habit; like any of us, if we’re wise, we go back where we found success.
Julia Feilden engineered a double across the cards in these two races last year.
Both winners bid for a back-to-back double: Silver Alliance (5.25 Yarmouth) and Automotive (5.35 Newbury), in a race in which she has form figures of 1141011. Both were BETDAQ offers of around 6.0 this morning.
6.40 Haydock Ed Vaughan hs a 50% record with his few raiders from Newmarket, and Interconneciton (offers of 11.0) makes a solo journey for his first handicap in this.
8.40 Haydock Ed Dunlop is having a stinker of a season with just one turf winner from 73 runners, and his Red Runaway is giving lumps of weight here.
At the other end of the scale, with her Engrossing (at 9.8) getting weight all round, unexposed over this trip, Ruth Carr is on a hat-trick after a Hamilton double yesterday. Win and place; eight runners.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 1.6pts win and place BY JUPITER (2.20 Newbury)
BET 6pts win (nap) JORDAN PRINCESS (3.25 Newbury)
BET 1pt win and place DOUBLE CZECH (4.30 Newbury)
BET 4pts win SILVER ALLIANCE (5.25 Yarmouth), if lose 5pts win AUTOMOTIVE (5.35 Newbury) and 1pt win double the two.
BET 2pts win and place INTERCONNECTION (6.40 Haydock)
BRET 2.2pts win and place ENGROSSING (8.40 Haydock)
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