DAQMAN WORTH FOUR NAPS IN FIVE DAYS: Daqman, a short head and a neck away from a 5-1 nap with Thunder Snow on Sunday, made no mistake yesterday when his best bet, Cullingworth (WON 2-1), stormed SEVEN lengths clear, giving him a fourth nap in five days, as follows:
WON 4-7 SAINTED (banker nap, Haydock, Thursday)
WON 9-2 FALABELLE (nap Musselburgh, Friday)
WON 8-11 SEA OF GRACE (banker nap, Haydock, Saturday)
WON 2-1 CULLINGWORTH (nap, Monday)
ENABLING PLAN FOR THE DEAUVILLE DUO: Are today’s Deauville trial favourites really such a threat to Enable in the Arc? Daqman finds the form facts curious and their home gallops prep even stranger. Is French trainer Jean-Claude Rouget planning a coup? Or simply still finding his feet after a virus-hit season? You decide.
CURIOUS CASE OF TOP ARC COLTS
The markets say you will see the Arc winner in the next 10 days. The Yorkshire Oaks is that far away for favourite Enable, but her main rivals in the betting, Almanzor and Brametot, are saddled in separate races at Deauville today by their trainer, Jean-Claude Rouget. What’s so strange about their form?
FACT 1: Almanzor has never raced at the Arc trip of 1m 4f and his sire never raced beyond a mile. Very unusual for a four-year-old contender.
FACT 2: Brametot has never raced at the Arc trip of 1m 4f and his sire was never placed beyond a mile. Brametot has been tested only at the French Derby trip and remains at that distance today.
FACT 3: Almanzor and Brametot, though in different ownership, have been galloped together in the run-up to today’s trials. Such a gallop between big-race rivals in the same stable but in different ownership is unheard of (or at least never admitted).
The most famous (never admitted or talked about) is when Dick Hern staged a secret gallop between the royal contender, Milford, with the little-known Troy before the 1979 Derby.
Troy won a street and then won the Derby under Willie Carson from an ‘impossible’ position on the rails at Tattenham Corner.
3.00 Deauville (Prix Gontaut-Biron) Almanzor is an amazing horse, one of the best I’ve ever ridden.
That’s how Christophe Soumillon summed up last seasons’ spree of five wins in a row, which took the colt’s earnings past £2m.
French Derby winner, champion of England and of Ireland – in that he won both Champion Stakes – but not seen since his second successive defeat of Found on British Champions Day at Ascot in October.
Trainer Rouget’s team has emerged from a virus – Almanzor had only a ‘mild fever’ – but he’s been in no hurry with the son of Wootton Bassett, with the Arc – and only the Arc – as the target since Champions Day last October. That’s two furlongs beyond his championship races.
Though without a run, trialling today at his favourite trip of 1m 2f, and with nothing within a stone of him in the race, Almanzor may get a genuine test, with Rouget saddling Zafiro as a pacemaker, and he gets weight from all his rivals.
The Deauville season has been on the go now most of the time for the past 10 days and, though he’s had a winner at one of the lesser French tracks, Rouget has sent out 15 consecutive losers to the Normandy summer venue. But Rouget broke back into the Group-race scene in the summer and seems confident.
3.45 Deauville In a surprise move, Almanzor has been galloping with Brametot, a second string to Rouget’s bow for the Arc and one of the leading three-year-old colts in Europe, though the fillies – at least Enable and Winter – seem ahead of the game this season.
Brametot has won four races in a row including the French Guineas and Derby double, the mile Classic run here at Deauville and the 1m 2f (and a bit) Derby at Chantilly.
His dam was half-sister to the 1m 4f Group-1 winner and subsequent champion sire, Monsun, so he could well get the Arc trip, particularly with his laid-back style of running.
Said Rouget after Chantilly: ‘It’s unbelievable. Turning in, I thought we were finished. Brametot just had too much ground to make up. But this horse is so tough.’
Of the Classic generation, Eminent, taking him on for England, is the ‘nearly horse’ of the Classic generation: sixth in the Newmarket Guineas, fourth in the Epsom Derby, and fifth in the Eclipse.
But Brametot’s Guineas win came at the expense of Group-3 (7f) Jersey Stakes winner Le Brivido and his French Derby runner-up, Waldgeist, was only fourth to Capri in the Irish version.
Brametot has to win convincingly today. One particular ‘must’ is that he maintains his length supremacy over Chantilly third, Recoletos.
An interesting contender is Frankel’s son, Last Kingdom, with Silvestre De Sousa flying over to continue their partnership after a hat-trick on the colt for Prince Faisal, and currently riding at home with fabulous 32% strike rate.
But Brametot is said to have closed down Almanzor in their not-so-secret gallop and ‘could have won’. Of course, we don’t know the weights they carried, and how far Almanzor is off peak, but Brametot must surely win this, and win it well, if he is to be Arc material.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 20 except the banker)
BET 2.5pts win and place MOREMONEYMOREPARTY (2.30 Thirsk)
BANKER: BET 20pts win (nap) BRAMETOT (3.45 Deauville)
BET 12pts win VEILED SECRET, and 1pt win and place SOURIYAN (4.45 Ffos Las)
BET 7pts win OXFORD BLU (6.40 Chelmsford)
BET 5pts win MUSTASHRY and 4.5pts win LESHLIAA (7.10 Chelmsford)
BET 12pts win SITAR (7.25 Nottingham)
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