TWO BANKERS UP OUT OF THREE: Daqman goes for three bankers in three days today, with a maximum-stakes bet at Salisbury. He is currently on two out of three:
WON 4-5 Walpole
(3rd 2-1 Beck And Call)
WON 7-4 Adool
CLASSIC COLTS ON PARADE: Today Daqman previews the Sovereign Stakes at Salisbury, in which the 2,000 Guineas runner-up reappears, and a maiden tonight at Leopardstown which could have a big impact on next year’s Classics. Aidan O’Brien has probably cornered the Desmond Stakes there with three runners.
ZONDERLAND? 6.8 WAS WONDERLAND..
4.10 Salisbury (Sovereign Stakes) Clive Cox (Zonderland) won with a three-year-old last year and Andrew Balding (Tullius) has twice taken it with older horses, including Tullius in 2012.
Like the Cox winner, Kodi Bear, Zonderland is stepping down from Group 1, and I thought the early-mouse 6.8 win and place in the BETDAQ orange was a gift.
Zonderland was well behind Massaat (shade of odds-on this morning) when they were second and sixth in the 2,000 Guineas (softish) but the better ground will suit, as he showed when scoring at Sandown on firmish in the Spring.
Sovereign Debt has been second 10 times in the last year, and hasn’t won on turf in England since July, 2012.
Master The World has never threatened in his few excursions outside handicap company. Ditto Belgian Bill, at least since August 2013.
That brings us back to Tullius, who needed a first-time visor to help his return to form at Epsom on the last day, when back to a mile for the first.
5.15 Salisbury Alyssa is reckoned capable of getting some black type this season and should climb the handicap.
This one looks an easy, with Fashion Parade a drifter out to 6.2 in the BETDAQ orange this morning and victory on the last day for Clear Evidence at Newmarket was in an embarrassingly slow time, her two opponents giving her 17lb and 18lb.
COOL MAIDEN COULD LAUNCH GIANTS
7.00 Leopardstown If I were Finn McCool, thinking of building a causeway to Scotland, I’d probably give it a miss while Nicola Sturgeon is around.
But another supposed giant at Ballydoyle, Finn McCool, the two-year-old Galileo colt, is seemingly swerving the big fish when he makes his debut at Leopardstown this evening instead of in the National Stakes.
He will be launched, not in at the deep end, but over a mile first time, in the same quiet maiden as his brother, Kingfisher, subsequent Ascot Gold Cup runner-up.
But hold your horses a minute! I say ‘quiet maiden’ but, in Kingfisher’s year, it contained a future St James’s Palace Stakes hero and a Chester Vase winner.
And this one has two more Aidan O’Brien youngsters – both with a race under their belts – making up half the field of six.
It’s still unlikely to fuel Guineas speculation – it’s a trip too far for a future Classic miler at this stage – but 2017 Derby prospects and beyond are in the spotlight.
In fact, perhaps the best of O’Brien’s three winners of this in the last five seasons is Ascot Gold Cup hero, Order Of St George, odds-on for the Irish St leger and hot favourite for the British Champions Long-Distance Cup back at Ascot in October. So this is a race more for future gold than guineas.
Yet it holds huge Derby interest in that one of the O’Brien trio, Tang Dynasty, finished third at the Galway Festival to Capri, who has subsequently captured the Canford Cliffs at Tipperary impressively.
A third runner for The Lads, Diodorus, is superbly bred and, should one of the O’Brien runners take this convincingly, Caravaggio fever will be consigned to the sprinters’ waiting-room while the new kid takes over the main theatre in Operation Ballydoyle.
A good run from Brutal would go some way to restoring the reputation of Right Honourable – they were one-two at Ballybrit – who was well in rear of Capri at Tipperary, possibly unsuited by the soft ground.
All in all, this is a must-watch race which could leave clues to cling to, as we try to sort the men from the juveniles. This morning, one of them went clear in the BETDAQ orange. Finn McCool.
COUGAR VALUE FOR BACK-TO-BACK WINS
7.30 Leopardstown (Desmond Stakes) There’s been only one winner of this over the age of five since 1976, with Aidan O’Brien and Jim Bolger scoring five winners each since 1991.
On the stats, then, it’s a four-horse race. But – here we go again – three of them are trained Aidan O’Brien!
Will Hit It A Bomb bomb like Air Force Blue? Or will he recapture the form which won him three in a row and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile? There’s clearly a bigger risk than this morning’s 2.28 offers.
The difference between the two other Ballydoyle contenders is that General Macarthur would prefer a bit of cut in the ground: when he won at Navan on good to firm in June – his sole success since his maiden – his rider reported that he ‘only just got away with the ground.’ That was Seamie Heffernan, who switches to Hit It A Bomb.
Cougar Mountain’s form on firm is 141, including this race last year and with the ‘4’, fourth to Golden Horn in the Eclipse. A had a bit of 5.7 win and place on BETDAQ.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength)
BET 6pts win BITHYNIA (1.50 Beverley)
BET 6pts win SEE THE CITY (2.20 (Beverley)
BET 4pts win RYAN THE GIANT (2.50 Beverley)
BET 6pts win DUBKA (3.40 Salisbury)
BET 5pts win and place ZONDERLAND (4.10 Salisbury)
BANKER BET: 10pts win (nap) ALYSSA (5.15 Salisbury)
BET 6pts win FINN McCOOL (7.00 Leopardstown)
BET 4pts win and place COUGAR MOUNTAIN (7.30 Leopardstown)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 4 x 2pt win doubles Massaat and Zonderland with Hit It A Bomb and Cougar Mountain (7.30 Leopardstown)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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