DAQMAN, TIPSTER WITH APLOMB, LANDS BEST-BETS TREBLE: Daqman launches Royal Ascot today after three consecutive winning naps. Since Saturday’s 14-1 and 5-1 big handicap aces, he’s played up the profits with a prile of naps, all at odds against. He dealt a hand of two winners out of three yesterday, one at 7-2, and made 45.50 on the day. The last three naps :
WON 2-1 DARLING MISS (Saturday nap)
WON 11-4 SNAZZY JAZZY (Sunday nap, dead heat)
WON 6-4 APLOMB (Monday nap)
400-PLUS POINTS PROFIT FROM HOT NAPS AND VALUE HITS: Now Daqman has a chance to play high stakes in the five days at Royal Ascot. Here’s his score against the Racing Post star, Pricewise, and how his supernaps and bull’s-eye naps have fared against their 200 experts:
➡️ Supernaps: currently 12 out of 13 (170 points up)
➡️ Bulls-eye naps to win 50: 3 from 5 (143 points up)
➡️ Value bets: Daqman 29, Pricewise 16 (110 points clear)
FIRST-DAY HEADLINES
🔹 MUSTASHRY TO WIN BY A WHISKER
🔹 ARIZONA FACES A STRONG THREAT
🔹 MARK YOUR CROSS AGAINST MABS
🔹 DARN! ANOTHER DEFEAT BY SPAIN
🔹 MENGLI CAN STEAL MULLINS GLORY
🔹 MAGIC RIDE FROM MOORE A MUST
MUSTASHRY TO WIN BY A WHISKER
2.30 Royal Ascot (Queen Anne Stakes) Leading trainers (this race): Saeed Bin Suroor 7, Aidan O’Brien 3. Jockeys: Frankie Dettori 6.
Age: Four-year-olds 14, five-year-olds 5. Favourites: 40%. Draw: 1 to 8 eight out of 10.
Last year’s winner Accidental Agent (there’s been no back-to-back success since 1907), Lord Glitters, Mustashry and Sharja Bridge have all won over the Ascot CD. Le Brivido won the Jersey Stakes in 2017, when Barney Roy took the St James’s Palace Stakes.
Mustashry is a six-year-old. None of that age group has won the Queen Anne in 40 years, but against that you have the supreme ability of Sir Michael Stoute to improve older horses.
Mustashry was static on a 112 rating for one year from September 2017 but, with the advantage of a run, made a 9lb leap forward this Spring by easily beating Laurens on her reappearance in the Lockinge Stakes, his first Group 1, with Accidental Agent (got too far back) in third.
Le Brivido (slow away and not clear run) was fifth, with Lord Glitters, who had beaten Mustashry at York last August, last but one.
VERDICT: Fifth horse home behind Mustashry in the Lockinge, Le Brivido, follows the pattern (loser on the last day) of previous O’Brien winners of the Queen Anne but he hasn’t won for two years and is five now.
Laurens has beaten only her own sex but her first run back has always been needed. She is the dominant four-year-old today and the bit of juice left in the ground will help her.
Fortune Cookies has bets on Mustashry and Matterhorn, 6.0 and 28.0 BETDAQ offers this morning. Whatever chance Matterhorn had may have been lost by his 14 stall, and my 1-2-3 is Mustashry to beat Laurens (8.2) and Le Brivido.
ARIZONA FACES A STRONG THREAT
3.05 Royal Ascot (Coventry Stakes) Leading trainers: Aidan O’Brien 8, John Gosden 2. Jockeys: Frankie Dettori 2, Ryan Moore 2, Jamie Spencer 2.
Age: for 2-y-o. Clear favourites: 50%. Draw: 1 to 10 five, 13 to 22 five.
All in the decade were winners on their last start; for most that was their only start but two had won twice, no defeats.
Following the market is the key, with just two winners at a double-figure SP, and with six favourites (one joint) scoring.
Arizona bolted up on the last day. The places were filled by two others trained O’Brien, so the ‘race’ was a stable gallop, but the fourth horse, Dark Vader, got within threeparts of a length of Royal Lytham, another for The Lads, next time he ran.
Threat is indeed a threat. Unusually this season, he was a first-time Hannon winner, turning over a 2-5 favourite at Newmarket.
Royal Lytham and Maxi Boy have very good attitudes. Light Angel is a small sort. Guildsman won a race at Goodwood which throws up class horses. His stable has had 21 two-year-old winners this year, more than Aidan O’Brien and Richard Hannon combined.
VERDICT: The front of the market looks hot with that ‘could be anything’ look about Arizona and Threat, while Guildsman is the star of the early-season juvenile machine. That’s my 1-2-3.
MARK YOUR CROSS AGAINST MABS
3.40 Royal Ascot (King’s Stand Stakes) Leading trainers: Charlie Appleby 1. Jockeys: Jim Crowley 1.
Age: Six-year-olds 5, four and five 4, seven 3, three 2. Favourites: 10%. Draw: stalls 7 to 14 seven successes.
The market says that this is a rerun of last year’s race when Blue Point beat Battaash and Mabs Cross, with the star of the previous year, Lady Aurelia, only seventh, suggesting a strong renewal.
Imprimis ran down Wesley Ward’s Golden Jubilee hope, Bound For Nowhere, at Keeneland and prompted the booking of Frankie Dettori for this.
Soldier’s Call was a neck behind Mabs Cross in the Abbaye in October with Battash only fourth, and Equilateral was the same distance behind Mabs Cross in the Palace House Stakes in May, with new kid on the block, the three-year-old Sergei Prokofiev (slow away, fourth), not quite getting into the action.
Battash doesn’t always bring his A game onto the field of play and has not won a Group 1 since the autumn of 2017 on soft.
A Group 1 completed back-to-back wins for Blue Point at Meydan but the runner-up is a 101 and would bring up the rear in the ratings for today’s field.
VERDICT: The ratings have Battaash (123) and Blue Point (120) clear but any juice left in the ground will favour Mabs Cross and Paul Mulrennan, who rode his 1,000th winner at the weekend.
I’ll stand by the Fortune Cookie at 9.0 BETDAQ offers this morning but, as ever with sprinters, it’s a case of who comes to the track at his best and who gets the breaks: 1 Mabs Cross, 2 Blue Point, 3 Battaash.
DARN! ANOTHER DEFEAT BY SPAIN
4.20 Royal Ascot (St James’s Palace Stakes) Leading trainers: Aidan O’Brien 7, John Gosden 2. Jockeys: Frankie Dettori 2, James Doyle 2.
Age: 3yo only. Clear favourites: 50%. Draw: Stalls 2 to 7 nine out of 10; seven from 2, 3, 4, 5.
Huge draw bias caused by that right-hander into the straight: stalls 2 to 7 have won nine times in the decade; eight of the last 12 came out of stalls 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Phoenix Of Spain and Too Darn Hot (Curragh 2,000 Guineas winner and second), Skardu (Newmarket Guineas third and Curragh fourth) and Shaman (Longchamp Guineas runner-up) represent the colts Classics of three countries.
Jamie Spencer, who rides Phoenix Of Spain, has had a Royal Ascot winner in 14 of the last 18 seasons and actually shows a small level-stakes profit on all rides.
VERDICT: It’s another one-two for the Fortune Cookies, I see no reason why Phoenix Of Spain should be ousted in this catholic field. Second: Too Darn Hot, of course, for the third time in a row: 1 Phoenix Of Spain, 2 Too Darn Hot, 3 King Of Comedy
MENGLI CAN STEAL MULLINS GLORY
5.00 Royal Ascot (Ascot Stakes) Leading trainers: Willie Mullins 4. Jockeys: Ryan Moore 3.
Age: Four-year-olds 6, five 5, seven 3, six 2 and eight 2. Favourites: 20%
Five of the front six in the market this morning were from Ireland, whose raiders are currently six out of seven in this race since 2012.
Willie Mullins and Ryan Moore have teamed up three times to win with Simenon, Clondaw Warrior and Thomas Hobson, with Simenon a hefty punt for me.
I gave some of it back until plumping for 10-1 winner, 12.0 on BETDAQ, Lagostovegas (Mullins-Atzeni) a year ago.
Buildmeupbuttercup was highly tried over hurdles through the winter after she landed her maiden from 28 others at Navan in December. She is a bumper winner at Ascot.
Mengli Khan was a similar maiden hurdle winner a year or more earlier, six lengths clear in a 30-runner field, but did a lot better than ‘Buttercup’ in the quality hurdles that followed, winning in Grade 1 and Grade 3 and placed twice at the Cheltenham festival. In fact, Mengli Khan (9.0 BETDAQ) is rated 22lb better than ‘Buttercup’ off 150 over hurdles, and the stable is back to form with seven winners in six days.
The same stable has booked Frankie Dettori for Batts Rock, who finally broke his hurdles maiden from a big field at Downpatrick in May.
Coeur De Lion is a 137 hurdler who was sixth in this race last year, when 2lb lower.
VERDICT: 1 Mengli Khan, 2 Buildmeupbuttercup, 3 Fun Mac
MAGIC RIDE FROM MOORE A MUST
5.35 Royal Ascot (Wolferton Stakes) Leading trainers: John Gosden 4. Jockeys: Ryan Moore 2.
Age: Four-year-olds 80%. Favourites: 33%. Draw: 5, 6, 7, 8 six out of seven.
John Gosden’s four winners have all come since 2011, and Star Of Bengal (cheekpieces first time) is improving with every run but has to overcome a high draw, which also applies to Addeybb, Magic Wand and Riven Light.
That all boosts Elarqam (BETDAQ 6.0) , low drawn and back to form last time after a long period trying to break back into Group racing. I think he can confirm recent placings with Willie John, despite being penalised.
Irish Derby winner Latrobe should be ready now and Mountain Angel has done well this year.
But I think this is a serious question for Ryan Moore, who has ridden Magic Wand (BETDAQ 6.4) eight times and won the Ribblesdale on her last year from the one stall.
She’s tackled eight consecutive Group-1 events since then, placed in four of them. Now she faces only limited Listed company with the one requirement from her jockey: perform your magic and get me out of the ruck and into contention from my 14 stall. I’m worth it! (1-2-3 Elarqam, Magic Wand, Latrobe)
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.30 Royal Ascot (win 20)
BET 2.75pts win LAURENS
3.05 Royal Ascot (win 20)
BET 6pts win ARIZONA
4.20 Royal Ascot (win 50)
BULL’S-EYE BET 22pts win (nap) PHOENIX OF SPAIN
(includes Fortune Cookies stake)
5.00 Royal Ascot (win 30)
BET 3.75pts win MENGLI KHAN
5.35 Royal Ascot (win 30)
BET 6pts win ELARQAM
BET 5.5pts win MAGIC WAND
FORTUNE COOKIES
20pts win on each except Philip Of Spain
MUSTASHRY 2.30 Royal Ascot
MATTERHORN 2.30 Royal Ascot
MABS CROSS 3.40 Royal Ascot
PHOENIX OF SPAIN 4.20 Royal Ascot (stake above)
TOO DARN HOT 4.20 Royal Ascot
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