BRIGHTON FESTIVAL OPENS TODAY: They should make more of the Brighton Festival, says Daqman. It opens today far too close to the Glorious Goodwood meeting but, better placed and in a carnival atmosphere, seaside crowds would surely flock there.
Today: BRIGHTON MILE
Tomorrow: BRIGHTON CHALLENGE CUP
Friday: BRIGHTON BULLET
DOUBLE, TREBLE AND A 13.0 SHOT: Daqman has a hot double and a treble down the cards at Pontefract, Brighton and Kempton, plus Oisin Murphy on a 13.0 outsider.
BACK TO THE BEGINNING..
WHERE was hurdles racing invented? Where the first winner for a woman trainer? The first for Sheikh Mohammed? All events which heralded huge changes in English racing.
But the history of Brighton racecourse is largely kept alive in the English psyche by Richard Attenborough’s film portrayal of Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock, razor-sharp (literally) boss of the race-gangs there in the 1930s.
Today’s Mile is the first ‘big race’ of the three-day Brighton Festival, which used to draw 40,000 crowds, the elite among them travelling by dining-car on the elegant Pullman trains on their 50-mile journey from London; ‘the lads’ with their crates of beer conveyed in the charabancs.
WHISPER IT! BRIGHTON ROCKS
⭕ 3.55 Brighton Mile The crowds are down to a few thousand, the prizemoney to a sponsored £10k for a race now demoted to class 4. In fact, the three daily feature races, Wednesday to Friday, are all class 4.
All the money has been syphoned to Ascot and Goodwood, the great traditions of Epsom and Kempton also barely kept alive, Ally Pally (Alexandra Park) and Lewes long gone.
Yes, you know about the Derby meeting at Epsom but the rest of the year is quiet and you won’t know so much about the great stables there that used to keep the race at home and breed top jockeys on the training grounds; they’re also all long gone.
Drink Dry (Marco Botti) reminds me of the Downs Hotel at Epsom and Buy The Dip (Jim Boyle) of the fairground stalls at Brighton.
Jim Boyle, who trains at Epsom, neatly bring the threads of my story together: it’s hard to see Buy The Dip out of a place after a run of 11-15 placed since June last year.
Twice a winner at Brighton in that time, never out of the ‘four’ in six starts there. But he’s high in the handicap, his success coming only in class 6.
That also applies to another CD winner, Blenheim Star, though as a three-year-old with 3-5, and claimed off, we might expect some improvement.
He gets weight from the two other three-year-old Newmarket raiders, Charming Whisper and Drink Dry.
But Charming Whisper has been climbing the grades, winning a class-4 at another summer seaside venue, Yarmouth, under claimer Sean Bowen. BETDAQ 3.05
BOY, HE ‘COULD BE ANYTHING’
⭕ 5.23 Kempton Oisin Murphy rode his first winner for Alice Haynes in the Spring on one that came to the race after modest efforts.
He won more than six lengths, with the trainer explaining ‘the apparent improvement in form’ but there won’t be words needed today after Ballsgrove Boy wins.
That’s because the two-year-old is within the spectrum of maiden runs before tackling a first handicap. His sire, Ardad, was a cracking juvenile who won Listed and a Group 2, the Flying Childers.
And he ended up taking on the mighty Battaash in the Scurry at Sandown and the King George at Goodwood. If Ballsgrove Boy turns out to be half as good .. (fill in the missing words). I took 13.0 on Betdaq Betting Exchange.
THE GODSEND DOUBLE..
⭕ 3.10 Pontefract Sir Mark Prescott, famous for his sequence horses, has a winner here still unexposed. After scoring twice over 1m 6f, Godsend goes for a quick hat-trick, stepped up to 2m 1f.
Officially a pound behind Yorkindness, but getting a stone! So that’s how Sir Mark makes mockery of the handicapping system…
⭕ 6.25 Kempton I’ll say it again. Trainers are creatures of habit and Charlie Appleby won this last year with odds-on Measured Time who went on to score in Group 1 and Group 2 later in the year.
Arabian Light went clear on the July Course less than three weeks back and should effect another measured plan in his education on the way to better things.
DAQMAN’S BETS
3.55 Brighton (win 20, nap)
BET 10pts win CHARMING WHISPER
5.23 Kempton (win 20)
BET 1.6pts win BALLSGROVE BOY
DAQ MULTIPLES
BET 10pts win double
GODSEND (3.10 Pontefract)
ARABIAN LIGHT (6.25 Kempton)
*Plus 2pts treble with
CHARMING WHISPER (3.55 Brighton)
What are points? Points facilitate a staking plan, which is the secret to creating profit. One point is whatever you choose: a pound, a euro, or whatever ….
Start with a bank and decide how much you can afford to lose over a period of time, and determine the size of your bets accordingly. Daqman makes this variation every day.
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