HEH FRANKIE! HOW CAN YOU BUY KILLARNEY? Look out; Frankie’s about! Dauntless cheeky chappie Dettori makes day three of the Killarney Festival an affair to remember, as he takes rides – four in all – for the first time on the Kerry track. Can he land a hat-trick, as did Lester Piggott when he paid a visit? Daqman looks at each Dettori ride, race by race, with a BETDAQ value question: can you buy Frankie’s Killarney rides?
THREE WINNING DAQMAN NAPS IN FOUR DAYS: Daqman landed his third nap in four days when Heritage (WON evens) scored easily at Bath. Today’s nap is at Wolverhampton tonight. The three winners were
WON 1-1 HERITAGE (Tuesday nap)
WON 2-5 JAPAN (Sunday supernap)
WON 14-1 PIVOINE (Saturday bull’s-eye nap)
FRANKIE TO LAND KILLARNEY DOUBLE
Frankie Dettori is just a wannabe today! He’s never won a race at Killarney; never even ridden at the track in the scenic Kerry country until today.
He rides a filly called Wannabe there this evening among four rides. But it’s for sure that thousands of punters will wannabe on all four.
Famous for his Ascot seven, Frankie landed seven more at the royal meeting last month, though not consecutive, and then a treble at Sandown on Eclipse day, prompting some bookmakers to restrict July Meeting multiples at Newmarket.
In the event, he won just two races on separate days: Raffle Prize on Friday, and Vale Of Kent in the Bunbury Cup on Saturday, when his ‘good thing’, Advertise, was well beaten in the July Stakes.
6.30 Time Tunnel The 48-year-old has been as timeless as Lester Piggott and the bookies clearly cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Dettori follows Piggott in visiting Killarney – Piggott rode three winners there for Vincent O’Brien in 1991 – and today’s quartet for Frankie include two that some will think are on a plate, served up for him by Dermot Weld, the leading course trainer.
The first of them, Time Tunnel, is in a race won last year, ironically, by Dream Ascot, upped to a mile and visored first time, after his 7f second at Leopardstown.
Weld is 6-11 in maidens on this course and won this race (2013) with Cocktail Hour, ridden by nine times Irish champion jockey Pat Smullen, and Ger Lyons’ 2017 winner had another champion, Colin Keane, in the saddle. So booking a champion to boot home a maiden is common practice for this event.
Another who stayed on well at the end of 7f on the last day is Royal Aide (Donnacha O’Brien up) and Colin Keane is on a Kyllachy colt, unraced Be Fair, who has bags of stamina on the dam’s side.
7.00 Mujid After Conor Hoban rode this one into the winner’s enclosure here at Killarney in May, he said the Frankel colt ‘didn’t really handle the track.’
But it could simply have been that he was green. He’s unexposed and more tempting than Tony The Gent who’d gone 22 races before scoring around the same time at Gowran, or Turnberry Isle who’s been a nearly horse since breaking his maiden at Naas in November.
Another unexposed is Highland Dress (3.2), thought highly of until niggling problems kept him off the track before finally scoring at Cork, also in May. Wins this if he brings his A game to the races today.
7.30 Lady Wannabe Dettori’s mount in the featured Cairn Rouge Stakes is dropping down a grade after trying a couple of Group-3 heats, including a 1,000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown.
In between, she ran up to last year’s Anglesey second, Viadera, in a handicap at the Curragh in the Spring, but her half-length defeat was nothing to write home about: the winner was giving her 23lb. Here they meet at level weights!
But that’s not the end of the collateral form: Secret Thoughts was around six lengths in front of Viadera in that 1,000 Guineas Trial, when the ground was soft in April. What difference will today’s forecast showers make?
Athasi Stakes fourth Hand On Heart may be best of the older fillies, giving 8lb to the three-year-olds. I backed Secret Thoughts (10.0) win and place.
8.30 Finding Nero Here’s Frankie riding for Johnny Murtagh, who has been out of form lately with 20 consecutive losers in the last three weeks. But, since he was gelded, Nero has been finding some fine form, a flagship for the yard before it went into the doldrums.
Listowel maiden winner Defining Battle had his particular form boosted when the neck runner-up Rhydwyn went clear of a big field at Limerick, and was second here at Killarney last night. But Defining Battle likes to lead and this is another three furlongs.
VERDICT with BETDAQ morning offers: 6.30 Time Tunnel (2.4), 7.00 Highland Dress (3.2), 7.30 Secret Thoughts (10.0), 8.30 Finding Nero (2.54). Bets below.
10.5 RAINBOW PRIMED FOR REPEAT
4.40 Lingfield Henry Candy is in terrific form (5-13) and, with Dane O’Neill in the saddle, his runners have a 38% record on this track, identical to his current strike rate.
All Right ran her requisite three maidens at massive odds (33-1, 66-1 and 80-1) but it was a different story on the last day, first time in a handicap. Backed down to 9-2 and tried to make all.
Rainbow Jazz was behind Clive Clifton and With Approval at Brighton when having two quick runs in three days, dropping a couple of pounds in the process, so he is now 1lb below the rating when he won this race a year ago. I took 4.7 All Right and 10.5 Rainbow Jazz.
7.55 Wolverhampton Three-year-olds ran up a sequence of eight in a row in this race until recently.One of the spoilers was Super Kid last year at 40-1, clearly as much a surprise to connections as to us.
Super Kid does the job very rarely (2-16 on AW and 2-18 on turf) and has had his win this year. In fact, his success at Chester on the last day was only his second since December 2015 from 22 starts.
This is Sir Mark Prescott’s time of year and the lightly-raced maiden Distant Chimes is up in trip for this.
Though there are five meetings today, Jamie Spencer has just the one ride all day: the 2.9 offer Desert Friend, stepping up in trip for David Simcock after 2-3 over a mile for Mark Johnston.
DAQMAN’S BETS
4.40 Lingfield (win 20)
BET 5.5pts win ALL RIGHT
BET 2pts win RAINBOW JAZZ
6.30 Killarney (win 10)
BET 6.5pts win TIME TUNNEL
7.00 Killarney (win 10)
BET 4.5pts win HIGHLAND DRESS
7.30 Killarney (win 20)
BET 2pts win and place SECRET THOUGHTS
7.55 Wolverhampton (win 20)
BET 10pts win (nap) DESERT FRIEND
8.30 Killarney (win 10)
BET 6.5pts win FINDING NERO
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