FOUR OUT OF SEVEN WINNING NAPS: Four naps up in a week! Zanahiyr’s strike at Punchestown yesterday was number 89, well up on his target of 113 for the year.
WON 10-11 ZANAHIYR (Tuesday nap)
WON 4-7 DRAGON LEADER (Saturday supernap)
WON 11-8 FULL REGALIA (Thursday nap)
WON 11-10 ICE MAX (Wednesday nap)
TODAY: Daqman’s bg-race previews continue today with the Dewhurst Stakes.
TOMORROW: The Cesarewitch and the Melbourne Cup
BALLYDOYLE ARRAY OF STRENGTH
IMPOSSIBLE to beat? Ballydoyle’s six-strong attack on Saturday’s Dewhurst Stakes include the top four in Daqman’s ratings classification of two-year-old colts seen out so far.
Sats Daqman: I was just a pound out on the official assessments – City Of Troy is officially 118 not my 117 – but the current favourite for the Newmarket race is likely to be 7lb clear of his nearest rival, stablemate River Tiber, if Henry Longfellow does not run.
119 HENRY LONGFELLOW Undefeated Dubawi colt out of the Galileo mare, Minding. Beat Islandsinthestream, odds on each time and by a widening margin, in the Futurity and then the National Stakes, both at the Curragh during the summer, good to yielding each time.
118 CITY OF TROY Unbeaten in two starts, winning the Superlative Stakes at Newmarket. Very mature, long-striding ‘unnatural ability,’ quote unquote Aidan O’Brien.
111 RIVER TIBER The Ballydoyle early bird, testing the water with a hat-trick, completed in the Coventry Stakes but, after a break, twice beaten into third by Vandeek, both in the Morny and the Middle Park.
110 UNQUESTIONABLE Wootton Bassett out of a Sea The Stars mare, beaten by Bucanero Fuerte in the Railway Stakes and then by him again, a wider margin, in the Phoenix. Length runner-up to Rosallion in the Lagardere.
ARRAY Those four seem to make up unquestionable Ballydoyle strength, but Juddmonte have announced that Array, under the care of Andrew Balding, will be supplemented to take them on after winning the Mill Reef Stakes.
It was with last year’s winner, Chaldean, that their team challenged the best of Ballydoyle and won the 2,000 Guineas.
GUNNING FOR AN EARLY STRIKE
⭕ 2.02 Nottingham Edward Bethell has been quiet lately but has a 30% win strike rate at Nottingham and 60% of his runners at Colwick Park reach the first four.
His gelding Gundogan, by a soft-ground sire who ran second in the Guineas, has had a nice break after being beaten little more than a length, fourth, at Redcar in August on firm ground, catching more than my eye (let’s hope the others have forgotten).
All the horses around him that day have been placed since. Gundogan is swerving engagements at York and Newcastle this week to catch the easy surface today.
⭕ 2.37 Nottingham Sanction was trainer Bethell’s last winner and she has her ground today in a race three-year-olds have won the last twice and stalls 1 and 2 have landed a hat-trick.
Divine Comedy’s yard claims off her, seemingly needing to help her chance of giving a lump of weight to Sanction.
Alba Longa is also giving a stone and has to bounce back from a nothing run in a Listed, now down three grades and raised in trip.
Reina Del Mar also dropped out the back door the last day but has won two of her last four starts, and looks value at 5.0 on BETDAQ this morning.
Both strikes were under Saffie Osborne – back in the saddle today – one of them in a class 3 on the soft at Newmarket (July Course), smoothly going clear to score ‘in a canter.’
⭕ 4.57 Nottingham There could be a ‘hidden horse’ here in a race the favourite never wins (famous last words!).
Jane Chapple-Hyam knows what it takes; she won the race last year with a first-time runner for the yard, a three-year-old like three of the last four winners, and Rocha Do Leao (Betdaq Betting Exchange 17.0) prepped for this after a holiday and some stalls schooling after being slowly away in the Group-2 Ribblesdale at Royal Ascot.
The 7.0 offer Estocross, a winner here on soft 15 days back, returns two grades lower but off the same handicap mark. Strong-traveler Stressfree should keep them honest.
BETDAQ TIPS
2.02 Nottingham (win 10)
BET 2pts win GUNDOGAN
2.37 Nottingham (win 10 nap)
BET 2.5pts win REINA DEL MAR
4.57 Nottingham (win 20, win 12)
BET 1pt win and place ROCHA DO LEAO
BET 2pts win ECTOCROSS
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