110 POINTS DAY-1 PROFIT WITH NAP AND 10-1 WIN: Daqman made 110 points profit on the opening day of Royal Ascot yesterday with a win-50 bull’s-eye bet on the nap in the St James’s Palace Stakes, Without Parole (WON 9-4), and a 10-1 hit in the Ascot Stakes:
WON 10-1 LAGOSTOVEGAS (Ascot Stakes at 12.0 BETDAQ)
WON 9-4 WITHOUT PAROLE (St James Palace Stakes, nap)
WON 2-1 CALYX (Coventry Stakes)
FORTUNE COOKIES MAKE THEIR POINT WITH 6-1 HIT: Fortune Cookies horses to follow, assessed at 10 points win on each, had a 50% strike with two big winners. Their only runner today is Cracksman.
Yesterday:
WON 6-1 BLUE POINT (Kings Stand Stakes)
WON 9-4 WITHOUT PAROLE (St James’ Palace Stakes)
DAQMAN 3-1 SCORELINE ON RACING’S WORLD STAGE: The winners score yesterday was 3-1 to Daqman over Pricewise of the Racing Post, taking the overall totals netted to 33-10, with the difference between them on the account now standing at 112 points (Daqman +33 profit to a Pricewise loss of -79).
Today’s Daqman headlines:
IT’S NO OPEN GOAL FOR CHELSEA!
STREAM OF STARS, WARNS GOSDEN
HYDRANGEA LOOKS A CLASS AHEAD
CRACKSMAN’S NOT THE LAST WORD
SETTLE FOR A HIGH STALL AT 18.0
PICK PURSER FOR DETTORI POWER
IT’S NO OPEN GOAL FOR CHELSEA!
2.30 Royal Ascot (Queen Mary Stakes) This is where Lady Aurelia first made her mark, one of three winners in the race for Wesley Ward since 2009.
And his filly in the field today, Chelsea Cloisters (BETDAQ 4.8), was launched at the same Keeneland meeting in April which set Lady Aurelia on her way.
But Lady Aurelia ran below her best yesterday and Chelsea Cloisters could be the shortrunning quarterhorse who gets caught in the final furlong.
If she is, Kurious could be the one, but there’s a strong word, and bags of dosh for Shades Of Blue (6.0 BETDAQ) this morning.
We need one on the other side of the draw, where Servalan (9.4 offers) is by a Wesley Ward star, No Nay Never. Let’s have a bit of irony!
STREAM OF STARS, WARNS GOSDEN
3.05 Royal Ascot (Queens Vase) Among the last half-dozen winners of this 1m 6f test have been future Gold Cup winners, Estimate and Leading Light, with 2017 scorer Stradivarius hoping to follow suit tomorrow.
Aidan O’Brien has won it five times since 2007. Kew Gardens and Nelson have much more experience than his third contender, Southern France. Ryan Moore has picked Kew Gardens but my man in the long grass tells me Southern France is the one to be one.
Meanwhile John Gosden has told two preview night audiences that Stream of Stars, as lightly raced as Southern France, is his best today!
I’ll try the pair of them, Southern France and Stream of Stars, at around 6.0 each to beat the exposed colts.
HYDRANGEA LOOKS A CLASS AHEAD
3.40 Royal Ascot (Duke Of Cambridge Stakes) Four-year-olds are on a winning streak (nine in a row) and, in the five years since the race took its name, four of the five winners have been rated between 113 and 117.
There are just two here with double-figure ratings: 118 Hydrangea and 112 Aljazzi. But they are up against two who produced career-best performances on the last day Tomyris and Wilamina
Hydrangea has won in Group 1, all her rivals only in Group 3, and victory here would make her comeback complete.
CRACKSMAN’S NOT THE LAST WORD
4.20 Royal Ascot (Prince Of Wales’s Stakes) So can you bet odds on the favourite, Cracksman, with his standout rating of 130?
Ever since Sir Michael Stoute chose this for Poets Word– ‘I want a Group 1 for this really good horse not a Group 2’ – his odds contracted from 9-1 to 4-1 with bookmakers, though still 6.8 on BETDAQ.
Cracksman and Poet’s Word were one-two in the Champion Stakes on the soft last backend but seven lengths apart. Third home? It was the winner of this Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Highland Reel.
Has Sir Michael Stoute, famous for improving older horses, got something up his sleeve yet again? If you think so, then BETDAQ has the value bet.
SETTLE FOR A HIGH STALL AT 18.0
5.00 Royal Ascot, (Royal Hunt Cup) I agree with Pricewise for once; you need to be with at least one horse each side, high and low stalls, to stand a chance in this cavalry charge.
The front-runners at the top of the handicap, Love Dreams and Zhui Feng, will be bursting from stalls 1 and 2.
But the Hunt Cup winners by stall in the decade show mainly a high-draw bias: 27, 33, 11, 24, 33, 6, 33, 11, 4 and 26.
If a race in the same year is a guide it’s the Victoria Cup run early in the season at Ascot over a furlong shorter, in which Zhui Feng was placed last year before winning today’s race.
He was pipped into second this time around, trying to give a massive 23lb to Ripp Orf. And the draw that day?
High-to-middle numbers had a huge advantage: 13 beat 11, 18, 14, 8, 20, 23, 22, 22 and 28, even though stalls 3 and 11 set the pace!
LOW (stalls 3 to 11): Four-year-olds are seven from 10, and Irish Lincolnshire runner-up, Saltonstall, went clear at the Curragh last time out, suggesting he can shrug off the penalty.
William Buick booked and trainer Mick Halford won the Hunt Cup with Portage two years ago (this column was on!) Negatives: Mick is not in great form on turf this year and Saltonstall has never raced on firm ground.
Keyser Soze was all the rage for the Victoria Cup after his Spring Cup third at Newbury but, as last year in the Britannia, also at Royal Ascot, he ran flat.
Raising Sand has Ascot form of 11430, the last figure revealed as ‘slow away, unfancied’ in the Victoria Cup. Jamie Spencer booked and subject of an overnight gamble.
Last year’s Britannia winner, Bless Him was a reserve for the race, ridden by Spencer after his mount came out. He’s 10lb higher here but had plenty in hand in the Britannia. Clearly a lucky horse if things go right.
Spring Mile third and Whitsun Cup runner-up, Kynren, travels well and can be put anywhere in the race.
HIGH (stalls 22 to 32) As with the low side, we start with an Irish raider: Settle For Bay played four straight aces on the AW and prepped well enough at Leopardstown in May for today’s long-term target.
Third home to Bless Him in the Britannia, Tricorn has been out of sorts since but first-time blinkers might set him alight for John Gosden, who landed a hat-trick here yesterday.
Down in the handicap since racing at Ascot a lot in 2016-17 and fair run back in the Victoria Cup. Negatives: poor strike-rate (2-25 on turf) and six years old now.
Goring is six, too, but his yard is in great form (won the Queen Anne yesterday) and the little horse is a real trier. Mukalal is a giant by comparison; will his wind op help him get the mile?
The penalty may stop consistent Repercussion. Well backed overnight, Tony Curtis was unlucky not to win the 2017 Goodwood Mile but that was on the soft.
Stablemate Medahim looks ready to recapture his best form, which was on firm. Fast ground will also suit Cape Byron; Roger Varian still has faith in him.
In-form Frankie Dettori is hoping to improve on his three times second on Gabrial, who drops from Group class. Placed 32 times but Ascot form is 0000033040.
Seniority beat Saturday’s winner, Via Serendipity, on AW only a week ago, and has that ‘could be anything’ look.
VERDICT: Afaak is the one who caught pacemaking Love Dreams at York but a middle draw (17) has never been as helpful as Charles Hills hopes (‘we can choose which side to race on’).
The high-side improvers appear to be Seniority and Settle For Bay. In the low stalls, Bless Him and Saltonstall have an ideal situation behind the pace
I shall bet each side like this: a bet on the outsider, save on the shorter odds. So Settle For Bay (18.0 on BETDAQ), saver Seniority, and 19.5 Bless Him, saver Saltonstall.
PICK PURSER FOR DETTORI POWER
5.35 Royal Ascot (Jersey Stakes) Group-1 runners dropping down to this grade three have won this eight times this century. Could It Be Love? Or could it be Symbolisation?
In the words of Aidan O’Brien, Could It Be Love ‘ran a stormer when second in the Irish 1,000 Guineas.’
Symbolisation was fifth the day before in the 2,000 but is worse off here with Purser, who stopped him at Newmarket in April.
Turn back the clock to last September when Derby winner Masar beat Irish 2,000 winner Romanised, with today’s rivals, Arbalet and Purser, third and fourth in the Solario Stakes at Sandown.
Arbalet has not added to his CV since but Purser went on from the Symbolisation success to score again over 7f at Newmarket.
Purser (15.5 on BETDAQ) likes to be up there, so we are going to need Frankie Dettori at his best to hold off the Classic filly, Could It Be Love (5.6 favourite as I write), also a front-runner.
They could easily come away from this field, but there is one to catch them, Emaraaty (6.4).
Apart from the emergence of Masar, the Newmarket Guineas form of James Garfield, Expert Eye and Headway does not impress, though Headway looked good on the last day and seems to be improving.
But Emaraaty, fancied for the Dewhurst last autumn and now seemingly showing that potential (holds Society Power at the revised weights on Goodwood form) is less than half the price of stablemate Purser and is a come-from-behind animal, clearly strongly fancied by connections.
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.30 Royal Ascot (win 30)
BET 6pts win SHADES OF BLUE
BET 3.5pts win SERVALAN
3.05 Royal Ascot (win 20)
BET 4pts win SOUTHERN FRANCE
BET 4pts win STREAM OF STARS
3.40 Royal Ascot (win 30)
BET 15pts win (nap) HYDRANGEA
4.20 Royal Ascot (win 20)
BET 3.5pts win and place POET’S WORD
5.00 Royal Ascot (win 100 with overall-stakes savers)
TON-UP BET 6pts win and place SETTLE FOR BAY
Saver 2pts (to win 24) SENIORITY
TON-UP BET 5.5pts win and place BLESS HIM
Saver 2.25pts (to win 24) SALTONSTALL
5.35 Royal Ascot (each to win 30)
BET 5.5pts win EMARAATY
BET 2pts win and place PURSER
DAQ MULTIPLES
BET 2 x 5pts win double Hydrangea (3.40) with Cracksman and Poet’s Word (4.20)
FORTUNE COOKIES
4.20 Cracksman
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