DAQMAN IN WINNING MOOD: Alcaeus (WON 3-1) and Plutocracy (WON 10-11) gave Daqman a profitable day yesterday, thanks to his staking plan in which one winner covers the rest of the bets.
DAQMAN IN WHINGEING MODE: Today’s return to cold weather has him in a wintry mood, complaining about the going, the stewards and the TV coverage. But he employs the same betting plan at the foot of the column.
CHANNEL-4: So what’s not to like about the new Channel-4 set-up? I was shocked to see a 4-1 vote for the old team in the current Racing Post dot com poll. So I asked Bill down the betting shop.
As you know, persuading Bill to buy a computer and enjoy the luxury of BETDAQ betting is my life’s work. He is the sort of conservative that even Cameron despairs of this week.
Coming from Bill, of whom ‘opinionated’ would not be the word – something stronger-‘minded’ (but this is a family show) – his answer to the Channel-4 question was ironic, but here it is; what do you think:
The new lot are all opinionated and bloated with ‘facts’. They bang on and on about a horse and, at the end of it, you may know every hair on every horse’s hide, but are left confused about the likely winner.
Man in the street has spoken. Vox Pop is on his platform. Go on, then, Bill: what more? What ingredients do you want most?
Answer: ‘Interviews with trainers are not what they were? And I think it’s because they are getting a bit personal.
‘The old team used to get a lot of information. They had the knack. Now they are asking questions which are grating, or which send some trainers and jockeys running for cover.
‘They can’t mix newshounding with seeking information for betting. After confrontation with one man, appealing pleasantries with another sound like wheedling. It just gets backs up and scares people off.’
Bill, you’re learning, old son. Now how about a word in your ear that Channel-4 can’t pronounce. It’s about fair-play betting where you know the offers are genuine, the amount you can bet is detailed, and the ‘book’ in which you bet is value for money. It’s called BETDAQ.
FRANKIE DETTORI: This is the age of rules and tick-boxes. Little men made bigger by the powers of the bureaucracy they represent. What always gets lost is commonsense and, therefore, humanity and reason.
Dettori has come clean. And all the evidence says he IS now clean. To watch the man bare his soul on television and then apply more red-tape is nothing short of torture.
STEWARDS’ INQUIRY: Where are the Stewards when the punter needs them? I have seen diabolical reversals of form and false anticipation in the market (i.e., we poor mugs had backed the wrong horse!) but no inquiry.
Memphis Tennessee was made 6-5 favourite for the Ormonde Stakes but trailed in 35 lengths behind the winner, Mount Athos. No stewards’ inquiry.
Toronado was the talking horse before the 2,000 Guineas – ‘best I’ve ridden’, Richard Hughes – but he was well out of the picture at the business end, trailing in nearly eight lengths behind Dawn Approach, with a 150-1 shot in front of him. No stewards’ inquiry.
Declaration of War Gamble of the Lockinge, in to 6-5 favourite. Only 5th, more than 11 lengths behind the winner. No stewards’ inquiry.
Gallipot This one’s different. Not different in that he was gambled-on favourite. Not different in that he flopped more than 12 lengths behind the winner in Saturday’s 1m 5f Listed at Newbury.
Different because, when asked on Channel-4 before the race, trainer John Gosden warned against backing him; today was not the day. Incidentally, you guessed it, no stewards’ inquiry.
Ok, let’s hear the chorus of disapproval: horses are not machines; they didn’t know they were favourite; the three-year-old may not have trained on; every horse is allowed an off day, and a dozen more besides.
But that’s not the point. The point is that, when a ‘hot’ horse runs badly, and there is no explanation known to the punter, it discredits racing, and brings the game into disrepute.
The punter needs to know what’s what if only because next time the horse runs he will make an even worse assessment: will it bounce back or has it proved to be tripe and doesn’t know its onions?
In no other sport are the fans hit in the pocket, no wiser after the event. No recourse except to drop out, lose interest, bet blind or save their money.
Of course, we know how busy the stewards are, swapping bits of paper with the French about drugs, clocking the number of swipes of a cardboard whip, to name but a few, as they say.
But at least Channel 4 got one interview right, though you can hardly go wrong with J Gosden. One day he’ll give up training, and I’ll campaign like hell for him to be racing supremo. I hope you will, too.
THE GOING: Consistency was never the stewards’ strongpoint; nor is it with clerks of courses and their groundstaff.
The Going Stick method of labeling the nature of the ground must be used on all racecourses. Meanwhile, we need its gradations to be recognizable and be able to have confidence in them.
Today, with the weather disparate between North and South, West and East, I woke up to my usual worries about the ground, and turned to the Racing Post website.
I there discovered that 9.8 at Towcester and 8.0 at Pontefract were both described as ‘good’ yet 8.1 at Brighton was ‘good to firm’ and 7.9 at Nottingham ‘good to soft,’ though ‘good to soft, soft in places’ at Newcastle was 6.3.
Where are we? Do we use the figures, and trust only the figures, and ignore the going epithets? Or is it the case that the actual ground in which the ‘pogo sticks’ are thrust is different from place to place, and some allowance has to be made?
Or is it that the nature of the ‘thrust’ is a gentle drop at one track, but spear-throwingly, arm-swingingly hard at another? I think we should be told.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 2pts win and place LORD FRANKLIN (3.00 Newcastle)
BET 4pts win DARING INDIAN 1.25pts win and place GETABUZZ (6.50 Pontefract)
BET 6.25pts win MASTER CARPENTER (7.20 Pontefract)
BET 4pts win (nap) NULLARBOR SKY (8.20 Pontefract)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 3pts win double KIKONGA (3.50 Nottingham) and MALACHIM MIST (7.20 Pontefract)
DAQMAN’S TARGETS: Sub-standard day. Bets to win 20 points, except Daq Multiples at SP. One winner in the singles covers all other stakes.
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