7-1 WINNER FOR 60-POINTS PROFIT: Daqman’s nap failed to perform to its ability on the heavy ground yesterday, after his 17 successful best bets in January. But our man opened his February account with a forecast one-two at Hereford and a 7-1 winner at Leicester for a profit on the day of around 60 points at SP:
WON 7-1 Alee Bleue
WON 4-1 Goodtoknow
(2nd 9-2 Mountainous: Ladbrokes forecast 21-1)
CHAMPAGNE AT SOUTHWELL? It’s heavy ground at both English jumps meetings today. So Daqman tries a tilt at longer odds (7.0, 8.0 and 12.5), and switches his nap to the AW at Southwell, the only runner for a trainer who is 51 today. Maybe the champagne is on ice.
DAQMAN’S SLANT ON THE NEWS
Have I got this right? The Jockey Club closes Kempton Park racecourse, builds homes there for the thousands in poverty currently sleeping rough and, to save money, runs street races?
I suggest The Mall, which is a straight 4.6 furlongs (may have to knock down that big house at the top end to make room for a proper sprint course). They could build a grandstand on Birdcage Walk and call it the Kings Stand!
Nearly honest. Claude Duval has retired. Not the highwayman but the headline stealer in the racecourse Pressroom for many years. He batted on and on and on, despite his first love being cricket not racing (a la Michael Stoute).
Claude is writing his memoirs. Will he include his own Kempton bombshell? One day when the track was cleared because of a bomb scare, his sports editor rang to ask: ‘Do you feel lonely there Claude?’
‘Why should I?’ Claude fished, as he answered the phone in a pavilion, padded up for his innings, somewhere in deepest Sussex.
Talking of cricket.. Nineteen balls, eight runs, eight wickets down! And the final seven England batsmen on the scoreboard had figures that I last saw in a selling race at Southwell: 0020000.
My Indian newsagent was so embarrassed this morning, he gallantly tried to defend them: ‘England got very good batsmen; just don’t perform under pressure.’ I’ve backed a few horses like that.
Trump card. That Las Vegas is betting evens a Trump impeachment by the end of the year is not fake news. I asked my man there (he’s the odds compiler) if The Donald could last that long. ‘We only shoot Democrats,’ he replied.
BATTLE OF THE MULLINS NOVICES
2.25 Clonmel (Grade 3) Monalee beat Turcagua at Punchestown in November and collateral form with Death Duty since confirms that he remains ahead of the Mullins grey.
Turcagua and stablemate Battleford are ‘the same horse’, pound for pound, on a line through New To This Town.
But today is a new trip for all barring Clonmel winner Rathnure Rebel who never saw another horse at Cork in December but was found to be coughing over Christmas when beaten favourite at Limerick,.
Snag is he has to give them all weight here, including to the same owner’s Woods Well, who is well related for stamina.
Rathnure Rebel and Turcagua are both seven now, and you wouldn’t take a seven-year-old out of this race for the festivals. Only one has won this in the decade.
The clincher is that Mullins has won it five times in a row – one of them was Don Poli – if you don’t count 2012 when he didn’t field a runner.
Ruby Walsh seemingly prefers Turcagua but Battleford (Paul Townend) is the one with the staying pedigree for this 3m test: 7.8 on BETDAQ .
GET A LOAD OF COBBLER AT 8.0
2.45 Towcester You’d think that Peter Bowen’s 400-mile round trip to Towcester from Welsh Wales would be significant for What A Diva, but he’s done that eight times before without a winner.
Pink Gin (Nigel Twiston-Davies) and The Artful Cobbler (Henry Daly) are both winners on heavy ground and both prefer a right-handed track.
Twiston’s plans for the first of the month fell in a heap yesterday with his seven runners returning UPP3PF0, with my pulled-up nap, Colin’s Brother, a well-backed favourite.
Trainer Daly has a good record with his better-priced horses here, and the handicapper may rue dropping The Artful Cobbler 10lb for two modest autumn runs: 8.0 on BETDAQ this morning in first-time cheekpieces
The hidden horse for a haymaker of a forecast (check the sponsor’s name) may be Pinnacle Peter (12.5), whose trainer has a 50% strike rate with handicap debutants. Peter is stepped up to the distance of his winning Point.
3.10 Wincanton Only two have won on heavy but some are unexposed and some haven’t even run in conditions like this.
Sirop De Menthe is an exception, and both River Frost and Copain de Classe, who has the stamp of a decent chaser, should go well.
But the one bred for a bog is Space Oddity, whose sire has an impressive 29% strike rate on heavy ground. Has taken a couple of recent races from the front, so 7.0 on BETDAQ is a nice win-and-place offer with trade possibilities.
THE NAP: With the mud flying over the sticks, I’ll switch to the fibresand and name Footlight (2.20 Southwell), sole runner for birthday boy Richard Fahey
Footlight, who has won on this course, faces a whole bunch of older horses, excepting Samphire Coast, whose trainer has saddled eight losers in eight days at Southwell. With a score like that, he should apply for the England cricket team.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength)
BACK 9pts win (nap) FOOTLIGHT (2.20 Southwell)
BACK 3pts win and place BATTLEFORD (2.25 Clonmel)
BACK 3pts win and place ARTFUL COBBLER, and 2pts win and place PINNACLE PETER (2.45 Towcester)
BACK 3pts win and place SPACE ODDITY (3.10 Wincanton)
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