‘SO’ SO GOOD: SHE’S SOME COOKIE! So Mi Dar landed a 30-point gold banker when she became the first of Daqman’s Fortune Cookies to run, scoring handsomely in the Musidora fillies’ Classic trial at York yesterday. Another ‘cookie’, intended for maximum (20-point-plus) stakes, runs in the colts’ test, the Dante, this afternoon.
DAQMAN PACKS A PUNCH AT YORK: As well as So Mi Dar (WON 4-5), Daqman also scored at Bath last night with Pack It In (WON 6-1). His challenge to Pricewise of the Racing Post contines today in the 2.10, 3.15 and 3.45 at York. He’ll be pulling no punches with TWO bankers and a pot-of-gold race. Current standings:
Bankers 3-5
Fortune Cookies 1-1
Lays (90%) 18 out of 20
Challenge: Daqman 27, Pricewise 9
TOP-10 GROUP ATTACK BY FORTUNE COOKIES
Magical! We can apply that epithet without fear of argument to our Oaks hope, So Mi Dar, but equally so to the grey Magical Memory, who also looked superb in victory at York yesterday.
Magical Memory, trained by Charles Hills, and ridden yesterday by Frankie Dettori, is added to the Daqman list of Fortune Cookies so that now there are 10.
They are: Arabian Queen, Cotai Glory, Exosphere, Found, Magical Memory, Minding, Midterm, So Mi Dar, Profitable, Usherette.
Our score is one Group 3, no losers, with Midterm representing our stable in the Group-2 Dante Stakes (3.15) today.
14.5 THESME WILL HIT THE TRAPS RUNNING
2.10 York The fast-away far side took all the prizemoney in the opening sprint of the meeting, won by See The Sun yesterday, with the result by stall 5, 9, 1, 4 in a field of 18, and the seeming bias was borne out in the Duke Of York won under hands and heels riding by Magical Memory.
Stalls 1, 3, 4 and (mainly) 5 have won ALL 10 runnings of this Jack Berry sprint in the decade, with older horses preferred (9 out of 10 above the age of five).
In handicap order that gives us the choice of Desert Law, Red Baron, Arctic Feeling, Duke Of Firenze and Normal Equlibrium.
I fancied Desert Law until I saw that Paul Midgley has had 74 straight losers this year, AW and Turf. But it was Richard Hannon’s poor stable record at York that put me off Nayil (won 12-1 yesterday).
Red Baron and Desert Law were second and third in this race last year, each off 89. Red Baron has never won higher than 93 and today’s 100 mark looks tough for him, whereas Desert Law has won off 100 and finished close up in a big field here last summer when on 106.
Arctic Feeling has never won this high in the ratings and is unlikely to put wins together back to back at the age of eight.
Duke Of Firenze is a cast-off by both Sir Michael Stoute and Robrtt Cowell, who has a class-3 animal, Normal Equilibrium, and the topweigh Toofi, runner-up to Magical Memory in the Stewrds Cup and fourth in the Ayr Gold Cup; he needs another furlong.
Son Of Africa was very well suited to a stiff 5f at Newmarket in June and is back in his class today, with James Doyle riding for Henry candy (47% strike rate together).
On middle-to-stands’s side, Brando and Doctor Sardonicius are useful but the standout is in stall 10 (can race either side): Thesme was flyingbolt at York last summer, gifted the ground she needs today and with Nigel Tinkler off the mark with a sprinter at Ascot five days ago.
VERDICT: Son Of Africa and Thesme are both too big at 14.5 in the BETDAQ orange this morning, as I write.
I have them in front of Toofi (needs further), Royal Birth (AW form) and Brando (high draw), and I go 10-1 the field.
So I shall back both as if 5-pointers at 11.0 to win 50, whereas in fact I can get 67.50 for the same stake at the 14.5 offers. Thesme is your trade horse as he’s likely to hit the traps running and, hopefully, still lad at the business end.
JOURNEY THE NAP ON A DOUBLE-BANKER DAY
2.40 York (Middleton Stakes) Journey, who split St Leger winner Simple Verse and soft-ground-lover Beautiful Romance for the British Champions Mares and Fillies at Ascot in the autumn, has the sound surface she needs today, with the stable’s fillies flying.
Koora had to drop back to Group-3 to score last season, also on soft. Lady of Dubai ws third in the Epsom Oaks but never so good before or sincr.
Journey and Frankie Dettori should be evens in my assessment of the race, so she has to be napped at 2.94, the first of two fillies who rate banker stakes today.
Midterm also gets maximum stakes as a Fortune Cookie horse to follow and is 2.62, which means that I’m covered by just one winner.
MAKE OR BREAK FOR MIDTERM IN THE DANTE
3.15 York (Dante Stakes) The snag with Midterm is that he’s not a Derby bet at 4.2 (ante-post orange this morning) until he’s won this race and, if he does win, the price will have gone!
I chose to speculate on US Army Ranger (5.7 at the time of writing), who may well be favourite again if Midterm loses this Dante.
Midterm does not get my nap vote today for two reasons: it looked like it would be the usual six or seven runner Dante, but not so. It seems there are plenty of trainers who still think they have a Derby horse, and the field is 12 strong.
Secondly, Midterm’s Sandown Classic Trial form took a knock when the third horse home was another 10 lengths behind US Army Ranger in the Chester Vase.
The fifth to finish was also beaten further at Chester and the last of the six runners failed in a handicap.
As an improver, Midterm, a lazy colt at home, could still bag a Group 2 today for our Fortune Cookies.
The Dante had had its doubters since Authorized a decade ago but last year Golden Horn (John Gosden) resurrected the race as the premier Derby test.
And Gosden has two strong contenders today with Frankie Dettori choosing Wings Of Desire over Foundation, whose Racing Post Trophy and Craven Stakes form doesn’t seem to hold up to this level, on lines through Stormy Antartic and Marcel.
Wings Of Desire beat nothing well in an AW test for this. He’s related to Group-2 winners among the colts and Oaks winners among the fillies but, as a Pivotal, may need more cut in the ground and has to find more than a stone.
Deauville has finished behind both Marcel and Foundation so collateral form says that he has a heap of progress to make to figure here, though that is always possible with unexposed three-year-olds.
CONVEY HAS ‘COULD BE ANYTHING’ LOOK..
3.45 York (Hambleton Stakes) Alfred Hutchinson hasn’t won a race since taking this prize a year ago but is still higher in the handicap and, instead of paint-scraping the far rail from stall 1, he must this time negotiate the traffic or make his run down the wide outside from gate 18.
Seven winners in the decade scored in the weights range 9st to 9st 4lb, where Saeed Bin Suroor (Always Smile) and Sir Michael Stoute (Convey) are the trainers in form but we’re talking from opposite ends of the starting stalls.
Always Smile was just touched off at Royal Ascot after winning over the straight mile at Doncaster. Convey is very lightly raced, but he was highly regarded at Group level and has that ‘could be anything’ look for a stable in its best form for years.
Birdman and Master The World are York CD winners, with Birdman running well in the Lincoln though obviously not well handicapped.
Master The World was runner-up to Third Time Lucky in the Cambridgeshire, while Lord Of The Rock and Donncha were first and second in the Spring Mile.
We have to look at the ground and the draw, and that gives you a short-list of Master The World, Third Time Lucky (slow to come to hand, says his trainer), Birdman (but high in the handicap), Donncha (best at 7f) and Hors De Combat (bit of a bridesmaid).
VERDICT: Lord Of The Rock’s your trade horse, likely to get to the front and spin the turn in front of Third Time Lucky, with Master The World (13.0) – another grey to whizz down that far rail? – and Convey (10.0) well drawn to attack under the two best jockeys in the land.
4.45 and 5.20 York Gulliver is the day’s early-mouse plunge horse, ridden by Pat Smullen (2-3 for red-hot Hugo Palmer), with The Cashel Man reckoned capable of going ‘right to the top’ for David Simcock, though a claimer is a bit of a worry.
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.10 York
POT-OF-GOLD BULL’S-EYE BETS: 5pts win on each (for a bonus 67.50) SON OF AFRICA and THESME
2.40 York
BANKER: BET 20pts win (nap) JOURNEY
3.15 York
BANKER: BET 20pts win MIDTERM
3.45 York
BET (to win 30) 3pts win and place CONVEY, and 2.5pts win and pace MASTER THE WORLD
4.45 York
BET (to win 20) 10pts win GULLIVER
5.20 York
BET (to win 20) 4pts win THE CASHEL MAN
DAQ MULTIPLES: 7 x 1pt win trebles and 2 x 1pt win accas Son Of Africa and Thesme (2.10 York), with Journey (2.40 York), Midterm (3.15 York) and Gulliver (4.45 York)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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