RACE HANDED TO DAQMAN FOR SUPERNAP HAT-TRICK: Daqman yesterday completed a hat-trick of supernaps among six best bets up in nine days for a profit of 152 points to 20-point level stakes. He had two out of three yesterday when, after Not Never (WON 5-4), his nap Greyed A (WON 5-6), taken at slightly better than evens on BETDAQ, scored only because one of his rivals fell when clear leader. Here are the six naps:
WON 4-1 RENE’S GIRL (nap)
WON 11-4 OLD GUARD (nap)
WON 5-4 MONBEG VICTORIOUS (supernap)
WON 6-5 BLOTTOS (nap)
WON 5-6 GREYED A (supernap)
WON 2-5 CYRNAME (supernap)
THE FLAT LOOMS ON THE HORIZON: With Jumps cards under threat from the Arctic blast, attention switches to a welter of AW meetings, with the Flat turf season not far away, first highlight the Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster on March 24. Daqman looks at star names on the big-race scene.
BUT IT’S NEXT STOP CHELTENHAM: First it’s Cheltenham (March 13-16), with the handicaps under scrutiny tomorrow, and next Tuesday-Friday Daqman presents his See How They Won daily feature a week in advance of Cheltenham on where success comes from. He’ll be checking out the ante-post books at the same time.
LINCOLN ROLE FOR TONY CURTIS
Sweet smell of success. The empire of Richard Hannon, son of trainer Harry, grew from 60 horses in 1977 to 270 in 2012 and, since Richard, junior, took over he’s added another Guineas to dad’s haul of eight.
Miles more horses than most, miles more winners, particularly over the Classic mile.
AW scorers already this year, including Sotomay yesterday at Lingfield, prompted me to ask my man in the long grass: what’s the word from Everleigh for an early bird for the start of the Flat turf season?
‘Tony Curtis,’ came the prompt reply. ‘He was thought to be precocious but in fact is a late developer, pretty decent already but has been given time to become a man for this year (if he wasn’t a gelding).
‘He is so potentially useful now that the decision has to be made: will he take in the big handicaps like the Lincoln, or go straight into top conditions races. He’d be a Group horse in a handicap (if he wasn’t a gelding)’
Tony Curtis was thought to be a Group contender in 2016, but his fourth in the Craven Stakes set the level for his Classic season as ‘a nearly horse’, and last year sights were lowered.
Didn’t find his stride until a summer of development finally saw him unlucky not to win the Goodwood Mile on the soft last August.
The narrow winner that day has just taken the Winter Derby, yet Tony Curtis is 25-1 with Corals for the Lincoln.
GALA DAY AT LAST AT LINGFIELD
3.00 Lingfield Ryan Moore has been beaten in three consecutive photo finishes since Tokyo nine days ago, including two of his last four Lingfield rides.
And this is three furlongs further than Abe Lincoln’s Wolverhampton victory near the end of January.
A shadow of the colt that was runner-up in the 2016 Britannia at Royal Ascot, Abe is a glass horse who’s had only nine races in his five-year-old life.
Another ‘shadow’ of former glory, or nearly so, is Celestial Path, fifth in the 2,000 Guineas of 2015. Didn’t much respond to a wind op on the last day but this front-runner should keep them honest.
Emenem is 131 over this Lingfield CD but usually needs a run after a break and is 4lb worse off with Kyllachy Gala, beaten a short-head by him here in December.
A 4.7 offer this morning, Gala has never won in England but that was the second time he’d gone down narrowly here over the Lingfield CD.
3.30 Lingfield James Fanshawe used Daniel Muscutt to score for him at the last Lingfield meeting 11 days ago.
And their (3.05 offers) favourite here, Zest, is weighted to reverse Wolverhampton form with Stellar Surprise and Carlinae (3-4 over this CD). Sumer Icon was beaten by Zest here in December (1m).
BAGEL CAN LAND A HAT-TRICK
4.00 Lingfield There’s little between Attain and Ravenous at the revised weights here after their one-two on the course a month ago.
Attain is the Lingfield horse (five wins up to 1m 4f) but Ravenous has won over further.
The 3.6 favourite this morning, Smiley Bagel, is 2-2 on the course over 1m 4f, and can land the Lingfield hat-trick.
He foiled a five-timer bid by his nearest rival on the last day, and Richard Kingscote has won five times on him.
Betsalottie bids for his fourth Lingfield win but has never tried a trip beyond the mile and a half. So bets a lottery.
DAQMAN’S BETS (each staked to win 20 at Lingfield)
BET 5.5pts win KYLLACHY GALA (3.00)
BET 8pts win (nap) ZEST (3.30)
BET 7.75pts win SMILEY BAGEL (4.00)
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