‘POLE’ DANCES IN WITH THE BANKER: Not much to show yesterday after Daqman’s spree of 20 returns in three days but at least the maximum-stakes nap, Walpole (banker, WON 4-5), landed the main bet of the day.
FILLIES AND MARES AT THE DOUBLE: It’s an equine ladies day today! This afternoon features the Upavon Fillies Stakes at Salisbury, and this evening another Listed race for fillies and mares, the Hurry Harriet Stakes at Gowran Park.
TWO MORE MAXIMUM-STAKES BETS: Daqman also aims for a double of banker naps, one English and one in Ireland. Both are maximum stakes but he limits his midweek punting to 10 points. The fillies and the bankers come together in Daq Multiples.
TURNING IN THEIR MIDDLE PARK GRAVES
Playing catch-up. Even the Racing Post has today realised that Caravaggio is likely to be this year’s horse not next year’s, and are already speculating about his 2017 downfall in the manner of Air Force Blue.
If, as is now likely, he goes for the Middle Park, surely even the Post couldn’t continue to trumpet the colt for the Guineas on behalf of their bookmaker clients.
The last Middle Park scorer to be any good at all afterwards was Dream Ahead. Here are the winners since then, with their two-year-old form on the left and second-season form on the right:
01010 Crusade (2011) after 00
11111 Reckless Abandon (2012) after 300320
10111 Astaire (2013) after 02000
2111 Charming Thought (2014) after 40
011111 Shalaa (2015) not race again
That’s a total of 19 wins as two-year-olds and absolute zero in their second season. In fact, Crusade, Reckless Abandon, Charming Thought and Shalaa all failed to train on; never won another race.
Astaire plied his trade as a sprinter but, though placed in the Diamond Jubilee, his overall record (1-12) was poor, redeemed only by success in the Abernant, while most horses were still stuffy from the winter break
THE FEW WHO DON’T LET YOU DOWN..
Thanks for the memories. My two Grand National winners every 10 years is enough to make your fortune at the prices. Even the Wallys and Grummitts can calculate the level stakes on:-
+ Decade 2007 to 2016: Silver Birch won 33-1 and Rule The World won 33-1.
+ Decade 1997 to 2006: Bobbyjo 10-1, Earth Summit won 7-1, Bindaree won 20-1, Montys Pass won 16-1.
In a generation before that my winners were thin on the ground (Last Suspect 1985) but in my salad days were clustered: L’Escargot 1975, Red Rum 1973, Well To Do 1972.
Tommy Carberry rode L’Escargot and Paul Carberry Bobbyjo. I’m sure there’s enforced retirement for tipsters, too, but it’s sad to hear of the decision about Paul.
Over the years you get used to scanning the cards for jockeys who don’t let you down. Is it my age that I find fewer and fewer..
CALL IN-FORM CANDY TO LAND BANKER
2.20 Salisbury A rare day for in-form Henry Candy. He seldom ‘does a Mark Johnston’ but here he is with seven or eight runners between Salisbury this afternoon and Bath tonight.
Beck And Call could be the best of them. Bred to stay twice this trip and more, the Holy Roman Emperor filly began to get to grips with her maiden at Newbury late on in a slow-run race.
The winner then went well in the Sweet Solera (Group 3) and the filly immediately behind Beck And Call has won since. Today’s field should have more pace.
After last night’s 20-1 defeat by a stable companion of my selection in the sprint at Nottingham, we had better put a pound on the supposed Candy second-string, Dimitre
3.50 Salisbury Six of the last nine renewals went to three-year-olds. Though Charles Hills has landed five winners from his last 11 starters, it’s hard to fancy Beauly as a maiden-only winner on AW (and I’ll wait for a Hills horse, Frenchman, at Kempton tonight).
Australian Queen has similar form, and I noted in my column yesterday a sudden downturn in the fortunes of Roger Varian (Sharja Queen), now right off the barometer in the Racing Post’s admirable Trainerspot.
So I’m taking a spin on Luca Cumani’s Very Dashing, a Dansili whose sole aim in life would normally be to get some black type for Helena Sptngfield and the Meon Valley Stud.
But, oh no, they have laid her stall out for a Group 1 in England and a Group 1 in Ireland. She’s hot!
So the 6.8 in the BETDAQ orange is dressed to kill, a Very Dashing win-and-place in a 109% overround.
HURRY UP! GET YOUR MONEY ON ADOOL
7.00 Gowran Park (Hurry Harriet Stakes) Three-year-olds are six-from-nine up on the older horses. Trainerwise, it’s Dermot Weld 3, Aidan O’Brien 3.
Some say to back the O’Brien when he has only one runner in a big race; in this case, Etched.
But she’s won only once in 10 starts, finally finding the winners’ enclosure on the last day, whereas his previous winners were successful two-year-olds.
Weld saddles two, with Burma Star having very similar form to Etched, finally getting on top in a Ballinrobe maiden on the last day.
Adool is much more interesting. The Racing Post racereader calls her a ‘he’ in his (or her) report on her third in the Group-3 Meld Stakes at Leopardstown.
But you can hardly blame him; Adool, who had won her maiden with authority, looked a dish out of water against colts and geldings that day, but she ran a cracker.
The winner was a Group-3 stalwart and the odds-on runner-up had won the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot a month earlier.
Adool has Group-3 and even a Group-2 entry in the late summer and autumn, and the BETDAQ offers are 10.5 bar two this morning.
If the race were won on looks, Assume would be the lady of the night (oops!). She’s a very imposing filly who has hovered on the brink of a Listed win (twice second).
But the David Wachman stable seems currently out of form, with 13 straight losers in the fortnight, four of them starting 11-2 or shorter but only one of those even reaching the frame.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength; 10 is a banker)
BANKER BET 10pts win (English nap) BECK AND CALL, and 1pt win and place DIMITRE (2.20 Salisbury)
BET 4pts win and place VERY DASHING (3.50 Salisbury)
BANKER BET 10pts win (Irish nap) ADOOL (7.00 Gowran Park)
BET 3.5pts win and place FRENCHMAN (8.10 Kempton)
DAQ MULTIPLES: BET 3 x 2pts win double and 1pt win treble Beck And Call (2.20 Salisbury) and Very Dashing (3.50 Salisbury) with Adool (7.00 Gowran Park)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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