DAQMAN STILL LOOKING FOR GOLD: Daqman is saving his bacon but missing the main course, with a place at huge odds. Can he land the big one today? It’s Gold Cup day at Royal Ascot.
Wednesday
WON 7-4 ILLINOIS (Highbury 2nd 3-1 same race)
WON 13-8 AUGUSTE RODIN (Horizon Dore 3rd 7-1, BETDAQ 9.7)
*Perotto 3rd 25-1 Royal Hunt Cup (31.0 taken on BETDAQ)
(Ascot naps profit so far 40 points; Fortune Cookies winner and second)
Tuesday
WON 5-2 ROSALLION (Fortune Cookie and nap)
Monday
WON 10-1 THURSDAY (day’s profit 25.00)
WON 4-9 GALAXY PRINCESS (BETDAQ 2.79)
Sunday
WON 7-2 OXFORD COMMA (BETDAQ 5.8)
Saturday
WON 6-1 JAMES’S DELIGHT (BETDAQ 10.0)
FLIRTING WITH WARD LONG-SHOT
DAY-BY-DAY STATS: last Thursday. FORTUNE COOKIES: Sunday.
BETDAQ Sportsbook: daily prices. BETDAQ Exchange: offers you can trade.
🎩 2.30 Royal Ascot (Norfolk Stakes, 5f) LAYS LOGIC : Not one winning favourite going back 15 years, the last two winners starting at 50-1 and 150-1.
Wesley Ward won this with a filly in 2018 and, in Saturday Flirt, has the only filly in the race today.
A 5f+ winner at Keeneland, she has shown stamina at home, and looks well bred to come through fast and late.
Her sire, Mendelssohn, was trained by Aidan O’Brien to win the Breeders Cup Juvenile (1m) on firm.
Like Ward, O’Brien has won this twice before: Whistlejacket broke his maiden by beating Cowardofthecounty, 7th in the Coventry on Tuesday (with Camille Pissarro 11th).
Whistlejacket beat Arizona Blaze (soft) before that one pipped Camille Pissarro in the Marble Hill. Several home defenders have chances but Saturday Flirt could ward them off.
BETDAQ value: 19.0 Saturday Flirt (saver Whistlejacket 2.32)
GALLANTLY FITS FOR BALLYDOYLE
DAY-BY-DAY STATS: last Thursday. FORTUNE COOKIES: Sunday.
BETDAQ Sportsbook: daily prices. BETDAQ Exchange: offers you can trade.
🎩 3.05 Royal Ascot (King George V Handicap, 1m 4f) LAYS LOGIC: No outright favourite has won in 14 years (two joint).
Silvestre De Sousa has a 23% strike rate for Ralph Beckett, and City Burglar steps up to this trip for the first time today. Beckett has two others, including Going The Distance (Rossa Ryan) by Lope De Vega, a French Derby winner who has just got a French Derby winner (see 5.40 today).
Poniros (also Beckett), Chantilly (Aidan O’Brien) and Persica were 2-3-4 in the London Gold Cup handicap at Newbury behind King’s Gambit, who steps up to Group 3 in that 5.40 race.
O’Brien also runs the intriguing Gallantly, by Frankel, first foal of a French 1,000 Guineas winner, nicely placed in the handicap and high drawn in 15.
O’Brien won this off the same mark with South Pacific at 22-1 in 2019, and 12 of the last 14 winners were in a double-figure stall.
The royal runner, Gilded Water (pictured below), is totally unexposed and has been well supported overnight; 8.1 on BETDAQ.
He ran away from James Webb to break his maiden at Chepstow; keep James Webb in mind for Redcar tomorrow.
BETDAQ value 8.1 Gilded Water, 16.0 Gallantly.
GOSDEN’S WELL RATED OUTSIDERS
DAY-BY-DAY STATS: last Thursday. FORTUNE COOKIES: Sunday.
BETDAQ Sportsbook: daily prices. BETDAQ Exchange: offers you can trade.
🎩 3.45 Royal Ascot (Ribblesdale Stakes, 1m 4f) On his own admission, John Gosden says the yard hasn’t got the kind of top three-year-olds of yesteryear but Danielle (15.5 on BETDAQ this morning) and Siyola (19.5) will run off marks equivalent to three of his four winners of this Group 2 ‘Ascot Oaks’.
Daniella could finish only third in the Lingfield Oaks Trial when You Got To Me was allowed an unassailable lead. The lesson may have been learned but then the worry is that those who keep a pacemaker company will burn themselves up.
Aidan O’Brien’s Port Fairy was second in a Beckett sandwich in the Cheshire Oaks; Forest Fairy first, Seaward third. Forest Fairy (withdrawn today) was seventh in the Epsom Oaks, behind You Got To Me (4th).
I can’t back Diamond Rain until Charlie Appleby can tell me what happened to Notable Speech in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
GREGORY DANGER TO KYPRIOS
DAY-BY-DAY STATS: last Thursday. FORTUNE COOKIES: Sunday.
BETDAQ Sportsbook: daily prices. BETDAQ Exchange: offers you can trade.
🎩 4.25 Royal Ascot (Ascot Gold Cup, 2m 4f) Surprise, surprise: four-year-olds have won seven out of the last 10 but there’s only one runner (Gregory) from that age group today.
Another surprise: Aidan O’Brien relies solely on Kyprios (pictured below), his 2022 hero. Not since Kayf Tara (1998 and 2000) has a gold winner retrieved the trophy two years later.
No surprise at all: Willie Mullins muscles in with a runner, Vauban, who was switched from hurdles to the Flat last summer, winning a handicap.
Kyprios missed most of 2023 and seven out of eight recent Gold Cups have gone to four-year-olds first time they won it.
John Gosden expects Gregory to enjoy the trip, reckoning he got his second wind as a rallying third in the Yorkshire Cup (1m 6f) last month, when Vauban was runner-up at a respectful distance to the winner, Giavellotto, who waits for the Irish St Leger.
BETDAQ value: Second last year, Coltrane drifted to 11.0 this morning and I took 6.2 Gregory
HIGH NUMBERS ON A MISSION
DAY-BY-DAY STATS: last Thursday. FORTUNE COOKIES: Sunday.
BETDAQ Sportsbook: daily prices. BETDAQ Exchange: offers you can trade.
🎩 5.05 Royal Ascot (Britannia Handicap, 1m) LAYS LOGIC: No favourite had scored in a decade until last year, with winners at 14-1, 18-1, 25-1 and 28-1 since 2017.
Royal Hunt Cup yesterday (same straight course as the Britannia): first six by stall 20, 19, 17, 10, 23, 22. High numbers today, then.
Silvestre De Sousa (Dashing Darcey 25) and Oisin Murphy (Mission To Moon 33) are in great form as jockeys; Ralph Beckett (Kings Gamble 23 and Qirat 29) and Team Gosden (Lautrec 32) as trainers.
More from the high numbers: Vercors is bred for firm ground but hasn’t seen any in France: 106 on BETDAQ this morning. From the middle draw, Monkey Island (12) is well handicapped at offers of 33.0.
Betdaq Betting Exchange 18.0 Dashing Darcey, 30.0 Mission To Moon
LOOK NO FURTHER TO ECLIPSE
DAY-BY-DAY STATS: last Thursday. FORTUNE COOKIES: Sunday.
BETDAQ Sportsbook: daily prices. BETDAQ Exchange: offers you can trade.
🎩 5.40 Royal Ascot (Hampton Court Stakes, 1m 2f): A strong field of English, Irish and French, with contenders from two Derbys. It’s a Group-3 Eclipse.
First Look was second Look when he finished runner-up to Look De Vega in the French Derby on heavy! Both are by Lope De Vega, whose progeny has best figures on good and good to firm.
If official ratings are correct between England and France, First Look’s 116 rating puts him half a stone clear of anything else in this, and 6.9 on BETDAQ was therefore value this morning.
Al Musmak, second in the Royal Lodge on good to firm, had a low blood count after flopping in the Dante; trainer and jockey are in top form and he could bounce back.
King’s Gambit won the London Gold Cup, often a pointer to better things, and the fourth horse trotted up at Epsom afterwards but he’s a bit short at 2.66 for your opening gambit on the race.
Bellum Justum won the Blue Riband Trial at Epsom and finished seventh there in the Derby. Firm-ground winner now back to his optimum trip.
DAQMAN VALUE BET: The unexposed Taraj got within a length or so of Los Angeles in the Leopardstown Derby Trial before the winner ran third in our Derby. Sold for £480k on Monday, and big offers at 21.0.
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.30 Royal Ascot (win-50 bull’s-eye bet)
BET 2.75pts win SATURDAY FLIRT
BET 6pts to win 10 WHISTLEJACKET
3.00 Royal Ascot (win-50 bull’s-eye bet)
BET 3.25pts win GALLANTLY
BET 2.6pts to win 20 GILDED WATER
3.45 Royal Ascot (win 30 x 2)
BET 2pts win DANIELLE
BET 1.5pts win SIYOLA
4.25 Royal Ascot (win-50 bull’s-eye nap)
BET 10pts win GREGORY
BET 2.5pts win (saver) KYPRIOS
5.05 Royal Ascot (win-50 bull’s-eye bets)
BET 3pts win DASHING DARCEY
BET 1.75pts win MISSION TO MOON
5.40 Royal Ascot (win-50 bull’s-eye bet)
BET 7pts win FIRST LOOK
BET 2.5pts win TARAJ
BET 5pts win (saver) KING’S GAMBIT
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.
Did you know? DAQMAN’s tips are posted each and every day so he’s always on hand to help with your horse racing betting.
