DAQMAN LANDS NAPS HAT-TRICK: Daqman completed a hat-trick of naps when Nezwaah cruised home at Ayr yesterday, eased down a very easy winner, heavily backed near the off. His three naps in a row were:
WON 5-4 VENTURA DRAGON (Monday nap)
WON 10-11 DABULENA (Tuesday banker)
WON 1-2 NEZWAAH (Wednesday nap)
EIGHT WINNERS IN THREE DAYS: Daqman also scored yesterday with Irish Roe (WON 6-5), giving him two out of three twice this week and a total of eight winners in three days:
WON 5-4 VENTURA DRAGON (Monday nap)
WON 9-4 LUIS FERNANDEZ (Monday)
WON 7-1 HAREBELL (Tuesday)
WON 17-10 TERRAKOVA (Tuesday)
WON 4-5 OMRAN (Tuesday)
WON 10-11 DABULENA (Tuesday banker nap)
WON 1-2 NEZWAAH (Wednesday nap)
WON 6-5 IRISH ROE (Wednesday)
BANKER CUP HORSE TONIGHT: Goodwood today and tomorrow and Sandown tonight have last-chance Classic trials and a spotlight on Cup horses for the season. One of them is Daqman’s banker.
MORI FOR MOORE-STOUTE MAGIC
Last-chance saloon. The Height Of Fashion Stakes today and the Cocked Hat (the old Predominate) tomorrow, both at Goodwood, are the final trials for next week’s Oaks and Derby.
They are so close to the Classics this year that a winner booking a place at Epsom would really have to cruise home in the trial, and not have a hard race, which hasn’t really been seen since Troy (1979) and Asian Heights (2001).
Troy cruised on, seven lengths clear in the Derby, but Asian Heights missed his Classic season and recovered only to Group-3 level.
Raising both age and experience, tonight at Sandown the Henry 11 Stakes could fire up the market for the Goodwood and Ascot Gold Cups.
4.20 Goodwood (Height Of Fashion Stakes) The form of Coconut Crème’s fifth to Shutter Speed last year has been franked by the winner but there was no depth to the field. In her Beverley reappearance win, she was quite fresh and ‘buzzy.’
Elas Ruby and the hooded Icespire, 8lb higher in the ratings, come from the Shutter Speed stable of John Gosden, who also has Enable in a strong crop of three-year-old fillies.
I’m a snob and a purist when it comes to the Classics, and I don’t want to back horses at this level wearing a hood. Similarly, I’m never very keen on a maiden (Gakku) when there are six winners to choose from in the race.
Frankel’s daughter, Mori is the one for me. Her mother, Midday, won the Nassau Stakes three times in a row over this course and distance.
And this looks a shrewd move to run her here by the master of improvement in the horse, Sir Michael Stoute, who has Ryan Moore as his equine educator again tonight.
DON’T IGNORE THE SHADE AT GOODWOOD
2.35 Goodwood Racegoers may need to shelter in the shade at sun-swept Goodwood this afternoon and the pick here looks to be Shady Mccoy who arrives on the back of a terrific run in the ultra-competitive Victoria Cup at Ascot where he finished 4th at 33/1 to Fastnet Tempest. He didn’t have a clear run inside the final furlong and was arguably unlucky not to have won the race.
He was a course and distance winner last year so we know he handles the quirky contours of Goodwood well.
3.10 Goodwood Down to just eight runners with the defection of three runners. It looks competitive with perhaps only One Pursuit safe to rule out after an absence from the track of 741 days.
October Storm won well over 1m 6f last time out beating Ayr Of Elegance with plenty in hand and I fully expect him to confirm that form off a 5lb higher mark.
TUNE INTO THE NATIONAL SOUND
6.30 Sandown (National Stakes) Four of the five runners were winners last time out including Sound And Silence who looked smart when making a winning debut at Newmarket. The Charlie Appleby trained runner made his move close to the finish and just had to be pushed out to beat Never Back Down.
Although the runner-up won at Leicester next time out, he made hard work of landing the odds of 1/3 which hasn’t exactly franked the form but Sound And Silence was very green on debut and will surely improve significantly for the run.
Havana Grey bolted home by five lengths at Ayr but it looked a very weak race and the runner-uo Shay C has been well beaten subsequently at Carlisle.
Frozen Angel was last of nine in the Newmarket race won by Sound And Silence but came on tonnes for the run to win well at Ascot next time out and looks the big danger – even though he has 12 lengths to find with the selection on Newmarket form.
ORANGE CAN PIP CUP LINE-UP
7.05 Sandown (Henry 11 Stakes) The 2012 winner of this, Opinion Poll, ran second in the Ascot Gold Cup, and last year’s winner, Pallasator, was second in the Goodwood Cup.
Brown Panther (2014), also seemed to be a nearly horse, third in both Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup, but he made up for those defeats by taking the Irish St Leger and the Dubai Gold Cup.
In between Brown Panther and Pallasator, Vent De Force scored in 2015 and is back again today, but it was probably firm ground that helped him to success two years ago and he needs more of the drying weather for tonight. He is the only one not engaged in the Ascot Gold Cup.
Quest for More, who won the French Gold Cup (Prix Du Cadran), was British Long Distance Champion runner-up.
He and Big Orange are dead level on the ratings but Quest For More has to give away a Group-1 penalty and probably wants a more grueling test.
Big Orange has twice won the Goodwood Cup, both times with a win beforehand, so he looks primed to get off the mark for the season tonight.
Big Orange is currently 25.0 in the BETDAQ ante-post orange for the Ascpt Gold Cup, with Quest For More 17.5.
HANNON STEEL WITH SO MI DAR OUT
7.35 Sandown (Brigadier Gerard Stakes) All change, all change. The red hot favourite So Mi Dar was pulled out by trainer John Gosden this morning with a minor injury and will now head straight to Royal Ascot for either the Duke of Cambridge Stakes or the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
Her defection has taken a lot of the interest away from what now looks a below par Group 3.
Hugo Palmer came back to form (frustratingly for me) when Chatting came with an incredible run to pip Wigan Warrior and Margherita at Kempton last night which will boost stable confidence behind Baydar.
Baydar won the valuable Dubai Duty Free Handicap at Newbury last season but was then a bitter disappointment when last of seven in a Listed race at Newmarket for which he went off a 13/8 favourite.
Steel Of Madrid is no world beater but might well be able to land his second Group 3 of the season. Richard Hannon’s runner won the Earl Of Sefton Stakes at Newmarket last month and holds Autocratic on that form.
Chain Of Daisies finished last season with wins in a Listed race at Salisbury (course record time) and a Group 3 at Windsor and certainly has place hopes now after the defection of So Mi Dar.
STOUTE’S CHELMSFORD CONQUEST
6.55 Chelmsford After Mori at Goodwood this afternoon, another Stoute colt, the ex-French Noble Conquest, could go in here after exciting work-watchers with his recent improvement.
Bought at the breeze-up sales, he was slow getting the hang of things at Freemason Lodge but has stepped forward in his work since his eyecatching first run.
Sir Michael trained Noble Conquest’s dam’s sire, Medicean, who improved rapidly in his first season from class 4 to class 3 to Group-1 placed in the first two months. Won Lockinge, Queen Anne and Eclipse of 2001.
DAQMAN’S BETS (stakes to win 20 points)
BET 4.6pts win SHADY MCCOY (2.35 Goodwood)
BET 10pts win OCTOBER STORM (3.10 Goodwood)
BET 10pts win MORI (4.20 Goodwood)
BET 9.8pts win SOUND AND SILENCE (6.30 Sandown)
BET 8pts win NOBLE CONQUEST (6.55 Chelmsford)
BANKER: 20pts win (nap) BIG ORANGE (7.05 Sandown)
BET 6.25pts win STEEL OF MADRID (7.35 Sandown)
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