FIVE OUT OF SIX! FORTUNE FAVOURS A BRAVE 9-4 STRIKE BY DAQMAN: Daqman made it five winning bets from six attempts in two days and landed back-to-back naps yesterday when the appropriately-named Glory and Fortune followed up Monday’s best bet, Tarboosh. So he’s made a profit of more than 43 points this week so far.
MONDAY (Profit 28.60)
WON 10-11 TARBOOSH (nap)
WON 9-4 FORBIDDEN DANCE
WON (w/p 2ND 8-1) place GARNOCK VALLEY
TUESDAY (Profit 15 points)
WON 9-4 GLORY AND FORTUNE (nap)
WON 2-1 SMART LASS
ENABLE WILL BE BACK FOR THE 2020 ARC TO TRY FOR THE THIRD WIN: Enable, winner of two Arcs and just missing the hat-trick on heavy ground, will be back in training in 2020 with that third Arc as her main target.
CHAMPIONS-DAY COUNTDOWN: ASCOT’S HURDLES TRACK TO BE USED: Daqman continues to check out all those Champions Day probables with winning form on soft and heavy ground. Today: the Long Distance Cup and the Queen Elizabeth 11 Stakes. It was confirmed this morning that, with the round course still waterlogged in places, Ascot will use the inner hurdles course for the Fillies And Mares, the Long Distance Cup and the Champion Stakes.
WILL STRADIVARIUS PLAY?
⚠️ HEADS UP: John Gosden will wait until the day before walking the course and making a decision on the participation of Stradivarius (Long Distance Cup ratings and soft-ground partiality below).
⚠️ HEADS UP: Advertise didn’t make my list for the opening Sprint, but trainer Martyn Meade, who has booked Frankie Dettori, has set up gallops with deep cut, and reckons Advertise enjoyed them and will go through the Ascot ground on Saturday.
2.45 Ascot (British Champions Long Distance Cup)
Only soft-heavy ground winners (listed in ratings order)
121 Stradivarius (2-3 on soft) John Gosden, Frankie Dettori
118 Dee Ex Bee (2-6, one on heavy) Mark Johnston
118 Kew Gardens (1-3), Aidan O’Brien
112 Delphinia (1-4) Aidan O’Brien
111 Capri (3-5, two on heavy) Aidan O’Brien
111 Royal Line (2-5, one heavy), John Gosden
108 Cleonte (1-9, one on very soft) Andrew Balding, Silvestre De Sousa
108 Mekong (2-2, both on heavy) Sir Michael Stoute, Jim Crowley
107 Max Dynamite (2-12) Willie Mullins, Oisin Murphy
⚠️ HEADS UP: Aidan O’Brien has four left in the Champion Stakes, three of them winners on soft-heavy (below). The bookies’ favourite, Addeybb, is the only CD winner in the race but has not won on soft or heavy ground.
4.00 Ascot (Champion Stakes, British Champions Middle Distance)
Only soft-heavy ground winners listed (in ratings order)
122 Japan (1-2, one on heavy), Aidan O’Brien
122 Magical (2-7) Aidan O’Brien
115 Hermosa (1-1) Aidan O’Brien
114 Coronet (1-4, one on heavy) John Gosden
107 Pondus (1-3), James Fanshawe
ANOTHER MULLINS DIAMOND
3.20 Bath Saturday’s Newmarket Cesarewitch left me red-faced. To those who don’t like more than one tip in a race, I claimed fair reason to support both Willie Mullins stablemates Great White Shark and Buildmeupbuttercup at their BETDAQ morning offers, though bookmaker prices and SP didn’t warrant it.
Just my luck that a third stable companion, Stratum, would win the race at 25-1. He had been favourite when Willie fielded seven in the same race the year before.
So I console myself that it’s always money only lent with Willie. Now even Bath is not safe from the Mullins’ raiders to England.
Diamond Hill is a late developer, having only her 12th race at the age of six, winner of a Listed on the last day (1m 4f), stepped up half-a-mile this afternoon.
But that won’t bother the mare; she won over 2m on the Flat in July, then was strong at the finish when taking a 2m 5f hurdle at the Galway festival.
A winner of class-3 and class-5 handicaps, Sapa Inca stepped up to be placed in a Listed at Ascot and is now up 20lb this year. Grace And Danger has been Listed placed twice.
CRACKING WETHERBY CONTEST
4.00 Wetherby Wetherby seems to have escaped the worst of the weather and this Bobby Renton Chase could be a thriller, with two front-runners, Cracking Find and Ascot De Bruyere, and a pace horse, Crievehill.
Against them are two stables in hot form: Philip Hobbs (5-17 still standing in 13 days) has won the race twice in the last four years, including with one ridden by today’s claiming pilot, David Maxwell.
The partnership try again here, with first-time tongue-tie to sharpen up Chef d’Equipe, who was a good second when fresh on his return at Newbury last November.
Nigel Twiston-Davies (5-15 in six days) is also flying and Crievehill of all of them here is the one likely to be staying on off a strong pace. Though his last success was at 2m 4f, he was fourth in the Kim Muir (3m 2f) at the Cheltenham Festival (Sky Pilate further behind).
This is how I see it: despite the money this morning, Sky Pilate has never won over fences and Jonjo O’Neill is not in the best of form. Nor is Sue Smith, but Cracking Find has won three times out of five after a lay-off.
Crievehill’s sole success from 11 races in nearly two years was in defeating Aloomono (beaten a total of 106 lengths in next two starts) and Masterplan (pulled up four of next six starts).
I’ll oppose the favourites, Sky Pirate and Crievehill, and have Chef d’Equipe (6.8) and Cracking Find (8.6) running for me.
Philip Hobbs and David Maxwell have a saver for us (5.05): Ecu De La Noverie, an immediate winner when fresh on his move from France last season: 4.4 taken on BETDAQ.
DAQMAN’S BETS
3.20 Bath (supernap)
BET 20pts win DIAMOND HILL
4.00 Wetherby (win 20 each)
BET 3.4pts win CHEF D’EQUIPE
BET 2.6pts win CRACKING FIND
5.05 Wetherby (win 10)
BET 3pts win ECU DE LA NOVERIE
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