DAQMAN 40 POINTS UP ON PRICEWISE: Daqman is positively steamrolling Pricewise! He went 40 points clear of the Racing Post tipster to a level one-point stake when Mutawatheb (WON 7-2) scored at Chester yesterday. It takes the winning margin to Daqman 19 Pricewise 5 in winning tips.
EPSOM DERBY: CLIFF TOPS FOR O’BRIEN: After his 25-1 ante-post Enable for the Oaks, Daqman is looking for more Classic ’overs’, this time with his 10-1 about Aiden O’Brien’s Cliffs Of Moher for the Derby. Check out his trial in the Dee Stakes today. He features in multiples galore at Chester and Ascot.
CHAMPAGNE IS ON ICE SLICE
1.50 Chester First puzzle for punters today is how much rain, if any, has fallen on the Roodeye. The morning withdrawals suggest not a lot. But showers are also forecast for later on in the day.
Hillbilly Boy landed a Spring-into-summer hat-trick at Chester last year, including this race from stall 4, soundly beating the runner-up, Gabrial’s Kaka (in 2), who is now 10lb BETTER off.
Gabrial’s Kaka finished second again at Chester later in the month, again well drawn in 6, beaten by Sound Advice (from stall 5). This time Gabrial’s Kaka is 2lb WORSE off with the winner.
Hillbilly Boy’s big weight and his draw in stall 11 seems to kybosh him, and Sound Advice will struggle to get across from gate eight.
El Hayem, who needed a run back last year before winning at Doncaster, was gelded for his return in the Newbury Spring Cup.
Let’s hope Andrea Atzeni can do a Jim Crowley, who took the first race yesterday by the scruff of the neck on Khairaat, in contrast to Jimmy Quinn who had my bet, Brorocco ,out the back door, ‘tactics not easy to pull off around here,’ as the Raving Post analysis gently has it. I put it more strongly at the time!
Ice Slice, at a tasty 9.6 in the BETDAQ orange, is my alternative, based on his winning five out of six last year including over this Chester CD, toying with them at the finish. Now only 2lb higher and well drawn again.
CLIFF TOPS O’BRIEN DERBY TEAM
2.25 Chester (Dee Stakes) When Kingfisher won this before running second in the Irish Derby (2014) he was completing a Dee Stakes hat-trick for Aidan O’Brien, who landed the first three in the Vase yesterday, none of them inspiring.
I had always been told to wait for Cliffs of Moher, this time the sole Ballydole representative and already the subject of an ante-post investment in this column at 10-1 on BETDAQ.
The Frankel colt, Mirage Dancer, is another in my Early Birds list, though he’s taken time to come to hand this season. His breeding says that this is as far as he wants to go.
Bay Of Poets, in the one stall, represents the Epsom Derby Trial form, third there to Cracksman and Permian, the second horse franking the form with an easy Listed win at Newmarket, when the Feilden Stakes winner, Khalidi, was beaten off six lengths.
So, though no horse has done the Dee Stakes and Derby double since Kris Kin in 2003, it could be more informative today than yesterday’s Vase.
VOTE FOR RED IN THE ORMONDE
3.35 Chester (Ormonde Stakes) Fingers crossed that Cliffs of Moher doesn’t do to me what US Army Ranger did last year.
I was on at a big price ante-post, expecting Ranger to trot up, when 4-11 fav for yesterday’s Vase. He won it somewhat reluctantly and it was the same game in the Derby. This time Ranger was outrun in the closing stages by Harzand
Ranger continued to run well without winning and it was déjà vu, beaten favourite for the fifth time in six starts, when he was third at Naas on his reappearance. You can’t back an enigma, and hope he solves his own puzzle one day.
Midterm, only 2lb behind him on the ratings and not given a hard race on his reappearance, has won only on good to soft, and first-time visor suggest that she, too, has his problems
Like Stoute’s recent winners of this, Dartmouth and Harbinger, he is no doubt going on from here to the Hardwicke Stakes if he wins. Around 5-1 this morning.
Red Verdon won a handicap here at Chester last May, and improved 33lb in only five starts. Hampered in the Derby and finished late in the Irish version.
Finally, he finished fast and late in the Grand Prix de Paris, and his outside draw in 11 could help not hinder.
Red Verdon needs cut but that applies to most of this field, and they all seem to be in the same boat.
I can’t have the quirky Western Hymn, and Winning Story has been running short of Group level.
In opposing the favourite, I can get 6.2 Midterm and 10.0 Red Verdon in a 106% BETDAQ orange, still playing safe with stakes targeting 20 points.
MORE FROM MOORE ON MORI..
6.40 Ascot Ryan Moore goes on to Ascot tonight to ride Mori (6.40), a Frankel filly closely related to Midterm.
7.50 Ascot James Fanshawe has entered Mazzini for the July Cup, so we should expect him to dispose of this class-3 company.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 10pts win EL HAYEM, and 2.25pts win ICE SLICE (1.50 Chester)
BANKER: BET 20pts win (nap) CLIFFS OF MOHER (2.25 Chester)
BET 4pts win MIDTERM, and 2pts win and place RED VERDON (3.35 Chester)
CHESTER DAQ MULTIPLES: 4 x 1pt win trebles El Hayem and Ice Slice (1.50) with Cliffs Of Moher (2.25 Chester) and with Midterm and Red Verdon (3.35 Chester)
ASCOT DAQ MULTIPLES: BET 10pts win on each Mori (6.40) and Mazzini (7.50), plus 5pt win double the two.
SPECIAL TREBLE: 2pts win treble Cliffs Of Moher (2.25 Chester) with Mori (6.40 Ascot) and Mazzini (7.50 Ascot)
EARLY BIRDS: 2.25 Cliffs Of Moher and 3.35 Midterm
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