TODAY: 6.2 NAP AND AN EARLY LOOK AT LADBROKE VALUE: Daqman, who got in on the act yesterday when his bets included Act of Kalanisi (WON 11-4) and It’s A Doddle (WON 7-2), looks ahead to Saturday’s Ladbroke Hurdle at Ascot. His nap at Fakenham today was 6.2 on BETDAQ this morning.
TOMORROW: £60,000 BETDAQ FINAL AT KEMPTON PARK: There’s a nap hand of FIVE super BETDAQ-sponsored races on the Kempton Park evening card tomorrow, including the £60,000 London Middle Distance Series Final, postponed because of fog last Wednesday.
Like policemen, handicappers get younger. After a series of places without ever winning, four-year-olds broke through in The Ladbroke last year via rank outsider Cause Of Causes.
Now Saturday’s race has been deluged with four-year-olds, not least by – give you one guess – Paul Nicholls, who has Sametegal shortest of his three, and Nicky Henderson, with Chatterbox and Rolling Star.
But, when the mould was broken last year, it was the Cause of the Irish at 25-1, trained by Gordon Elliott. And Gordon’s Flaxen Flare is among the nine four-year-olds still in the Ascot race on Saturday, and shortest of all with the sponsors, Ladbrokes.
Ladbrokes are also keen on Sametegal but Nicholls warns that he wouldn’t want it very soft, whereas he has more than a sneaking regard for his outsider Irish Saint (25-1 all round), who would welcome rain.
At the start of the year, after an impressive British debut, Irish Saint was beaten a couple of lengths or so by Rolling Star in the Triumph Hurdle Trial at Cheltenham, after trying to make all.
Irish Saint now has 8lb with which to make up the deficit on Rolling Star, though the rain is not forecast to arrive in any quantity until race day.
Lowest weighted of the four-year-old probables are Dell’ Arca – for Team Pipe, which has won the race three times in the decade – and Totalize for Brian Ellison (another which is much shorter with Ladbrokes).
Totalize, fifth in the Fred Winter at Cheltenham behind Flaxen Flare with Ptit Zig, another Nicholls four-year-old, third, now looks well in.
Ptit Zig, who boosted the form by winning an Auteuil Grade 1, is top weight, 21lb worse off with Totalize, who is also a stone better with Flaxen Flare.
Dell’ Arca beat Sametegal – Flaxen Flare fourth – in the Greatwood last month on his British debut, with The Ladbroke weights giving Flaxen Flare 8lb to turn the tables and Sametegal 2lb for half a length.
Briar Hill, De La Bech and The New One have been winners for my horses-to-follow list, which goes into Christmas with Al Ferof, At Fisher’s Cross, My Tent Or Yours, Sprinter Sacre and The New One the biggest shouts.
TODAY: Tim Vaughan takes Nexius (1.40 Catterick) on a 500-mile round trip to make his hurdles debut. As a useful middle-distance horse on the Flat in Europe, he needed to find something around two-and-a-half miles over hurdles and is expected to be a useful three-miler.
I took 8.4 on BETDAQ this morning, with a ready-made stakes saver in the race, shape of A P McCoy and Forthefunofit.
Rick (12.40) should find the Catterick fences less tricky than Wetherby’s and, after the defection of Fennell Bay, is the sole representative for John Ferguson today on a course where he’s 4-6 (a 67% strike rate).
At Fakenham, Persian Herald is no more than a plater who’s had his run and, though the stable is in form, Snapchat has to give weight all round in his first handicap.
White Diamond is back to his winning track on the right ground, and is Nigel Twiston-Davies’ only runner of the day. Too big at 6.2 on BETDAQ this morning.
Dreaming Of Rubies (3.30 Southwell) has won after a long lay-off before now, has first-time visors and Graham Lee is booked: 27.0 on BETDAQ, as I write.
DAQMAN’S BETS (each horse staked to win 20 points, unless a stakes saver, which is backed to cover the win on the main bet in the same race)
BET 7.6pts win RICK (12.40 Catterick)
BET 3.8pts win (nap) WHITE DIAMOND (1.20 Fakenham)
BET 2.7pts win NEXIUS and 1.25pts win (stakes saver) FORTHEFUNOFIT (1.40 Catterick)
BET 0.76pts win and place (Outsider Of The Day) DREAMING OF RUBIES (3.30 Southwell)
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