CHELTENHAM COUNTDOWN: Daqman presents his Cheltenham Fortune Cookies by trainer, with bets placed so far in the BETDAQ Sportsbook.
🗓️ Tomorrow The best Festival handicaps for ante-post bets.
🗓️ Next week See how they won race-by-race guide.
HIDDEN HORSE AT CATTERICK: Today Daqman has a speculative nap on a ‘hidden horse’ from a stable which wins 50% of the time at Catterick. So a 10.5 BETDAQ offer may have a 50:50 chance.
CHELTENHAM COUNTDOWN
See How They Won All next week: a day-by-day Cheltenham countdown exactly one week in advance, analysing each race for stats and to see where the winners came from.
There will be ante-post bets along the way, with Fortune Cookies selected races, news from the stables and market movers.
FORTUNE COOKIES WWWWWW200WWWWW22WWW2W
Profit to level stakes 95.74
CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL
Henry De Bromhead Bob Olinger
Gordon Elliott Farouk D’Alene, Fil D’Or, Ginto, Mount Ida
Nicky Henderson Jonbon
Alan King Edwardstone
Willie Mullins Allaho, Dysart Dynamo, Redemption Day, Stattler
Paul Nicholls Bravemansgame, Stage Star
Dan Skelton Protektorat
Venetia Williams Commodore, L’Homme Presse, Royal Pagaille
BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE
Ante-post (win 50 in Sportsbook unless stated):
CHELTENHAM: Commodore (21.0 Kim Muir), Farouk d’Alene 15.0 (NH Challenge Cup), Protektorat 11.0 and Royal Pagaille 21.0 (both Gold Cup), Heaven Help Us 21.0 (Coral Cup).
AINTREE: Mount Ida 34.0 and 21.0 to win 100 (Grand National).
KOPA 5.3 IS LIKELY TO GO
⭕ 2.40 Catterick Favourites (7-10) or unbeaten horses bag this. Stepney Causeway last year won four in a row, three of them qualifiers for the Novices’ Championship Hurdle Series. I would say ’overqualified,’ wouldn’t you!
Kopa Kilana is intended to take a similar route of easy pickings, and I expected him to shorten from his 5.3 on BETDAQ this morning. Winner of a bumper at Musselburgh in October, he is reunited with Brian Hughes, who rode him that day to beat Ginger Mail, a 10-lengths hurdles winner last month. Trainer Rebecca Menzies currently has a 30% strike rate.
Whizz Kid could be a big threat, though Dr Richard Newland might have been kidding when he pitched him into the Tolworth at Sandown in January behind Constitution Hill. Tailed off, so wind surgery has to redeem him today.
Monte Igeuldo sets a low-level standard and could do better when he goes handicapping and his stable (currently 1-17) strikes form.
BETDAQ value 5.3 Kopa Kilana
RIBEYE STAKE TO WIN 20
⭕ 3.50 Catterick Though 5lb out of the handicap, Ribeye will be 12lb lower than five races ago in June. In among those he was runner-up, unfancied at 50-1, at Doncaster in January.
His Yorkshire trainer, Peter Atkinson, has a 50% strike rate at Catterick (3-6) and I fancy Ribeye for a place at least after a couple of decent runs stepped up to around 3m.
The favourite, Schalke, gives him 26lb and second in the market, Lady Bowes, is with James Moffatt, who hasn’t had a winner on the Catterick course for nine years.
BETDAQ value 10.5 Ribeye
HOLLIE HAS THE MOMENTUM
⭕ 7.00 Newcastle Class 5 and 6 all down the card at Newcastle with the exception of this standout conditions race (class 3), in which the veterans Judicial and Venturous are rated 7lb-plus ahead of the four-horse field.
Venturous has scored back to back before but is nine now and David Barron has wisely put a two-month gap between races this time.
Julie Camacho’s Judicial is even older and it’s more than two years now since he won after a break. Both stables – of Barron and Camacho – are out of form.
Absolutely flying is Lambourn-raider Archie Watson, who has booked Hollie Doyle for Mehmento. The combination made all at Southwell over a furlong further, and my guess is that Hollie will try to run the puff out of the two old boys.
In fact, her biggest worry may be Ex Gratia, who absolutely charged home in her second race at Southwell, after losing by only a neck on debut at Kempton.
She appears to have a mighty hill to climb – up three grades – but she ‘could be anything’, bred by Kirsten Rausing out of a half-sister to Arc winner Bago in a pedigree littered with Listed winners and two more Group-1 stars.
BETDAQ value 3.3 Mehmento, 9.8 Ex Gratia
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.40 Catterick (win 10)
BET 2.5pts win KOPA KILANA
3.50 Catterick (win 20, nap)
BET 2pts win RIBEYE
7.00 Newcastle (win 10)
BET 4pts win MEHMENTO
BET 1pt win EX GRATIA
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.
