DAQMAN ‘SUPER NAP’ LAUNCHED TODAY: After four naps in a row, it was back down to earth for Daqman yesterday but Thafeera (WON 9-4) bailed out most of the losses, and we’re coming up to the better racing at which he excels, including Irish Champions weekend and the Haydock Sprint Cup. Today Daqman launches Super Nap, an increased-stakes nap, in place of his bankers.
USE ALL BETDAQ OPTIONS AVAILABLE: The worry is the rain, stifling the pace in the race, reducing the fields, creating big-odds shock winners. But at least with BETDAQ the overrounds are so low that you can play the RACE not just one HORSE, and come away in front from different bets, Back and Lay. Use all the opportunities at a time like this. Read the tutorials.
BYRON IS POETRY IN MOTION
3.15 Ascot In theory, Classified Stakes are good races to bet in because the ratings don’t match the weights, though there are penalties and weight for age.
This gives the four three-year-olds rated 90 in this one 5lb advantage and, in fact, second-season animals always win it. In my opinion very few of them need the allowance in such conditions at this time of year.
Fire Brigade ran in a race of winners over today’s CD in July before coming good ay Haydock last month and may be the danger to Cape Byron. We haven’t seen him this year but surely his work must be sheer poetry for Roger Varian to have entered him in Group-1 Champions Day races.
Hindsight after he’s won could indicate that 3.15 in a 104% BETDAQ orange this morning was the first gift of the weekend.
5.00 Ascot A wide-open race but Afaak is fairly strong (7.0 bar one) at around 3-1 this morning after good runs here at Royal Ascot (in the Britannia) and at the July Meeting on unsuitable fast ground.
It was in this race last year that another three-year-old, Aclaim, came to the fore, first leg of a hat-trick, and the recent runner-up in a Group-1 at Deauville is now headed for the St Leger meeting at Doncaster.
Close to Afaak in the market, Sacred Act is a glass horse you can’t trust and this is an big autumn handicaps prep for Banksea. All his success has come on firm going.
5.30 Ascot But it’s a tricky choice for the nap between Cape Byron and African Friend, though commonsense suggests the big field for this could make life difficult to 4.8 the risk on BETDAQ.
Henry Candy is having a great season and has hit five winners in the last eight days. African Friend missed the break at Thirsk but, judged on his Windsor win in July, would walk this. Second (twice), third and fifth have all won since.
For the Haydock sprints today, I’ll need analysis (see below) but, with Paul Midgley (see also below!) removing Ninjago from this field, the jungle drums will surely signal African Friend.
SPRINTS ARE MIDGLEY’S REALM
3.00 Haydock Eight winners out of 10 have been drawn in stall 8 or higher. The two low-stall successes were on a sound surface, and a high number may be essential in the rain.
Eight winners out of nine have carried 9st 2lb to 9st 7lb, including on the soft, and three-year-olds have a poor record.
Two top trainers of sprinters are in very different form. Milton Bradley (Englishman in stall 7) is having a shocking year, with a 4% strike rate from 167 runners. He may turn the corner, but can you bet on it?
Paul Midgley (Manshood in 6 and Russian Realm in 8) has just struck form, with three tasty winners at 9-2 twice and 6-1, all over 5f and 6f.
Allowing for a couple of runs after moving from William Haggas, Manshood’s form in class 4 and 5 races is 22211. Russian Realm was back to form over CD on soft less than a month ago, his first win for Midgley, but is still 8lb lower than for his last success for Richard Hughes, which was in class 2 at Goodwood in 2016.
Toofi (drawn 10) showed promise in that CD race (Somewhere Secret in the rear) in his first start as low as class 4 but he’s 1-26 and not easy to trust with your hard-earned.
Cosmic Chatter wins at Pontefract and has put in two modest efforts at Haydock in his career. So, though it’s a short price to back both, I think I’ll go with Midgley (around 5.4 each Russian Realm and Manshood).
3.35 Haydock Another sprint, another warning that five winners of the last seven came out of high stalls. Though we’ve already lost three runners at the time of writing, a low draw is still a worry for Top Boy, Invincible Ridge, Rasheeq and Memories Galore.
Again, three-year-olds have a poor record, so Magical Dreamer, Four Dragons and Peachey Carnehan seem up against it. If Peachey ‘would be king’, it may have to be another day, though first–time cheekpieces may help.
Elysian Flyer could be another one for Midgley but Major Pusey (first-time tongue-tie today and 7.2 on BETDAQ) has been running in higher grades since he had Elysian Flyer well behind on the Newmarket July course.
If Memories Galore wins, it will boost the chances of African Friend (5.30 Ascot), who was slowly away behind him at Thirsk.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 30 points)
BET 6.75pts on each MANSHOOD and RUSSIAN REALM (3.00 Haydock)
BET 5pts win MAJOR PUSEY (3.35 Haydock)
SUPER NAP*: 20pts win (nap) CAPE BYRON (3.15 Ascot)
BET 10pts win AFAAK (5.00 Ascot)
BET 7.75pts win AFRICAN FRIEND (5.30 Ascot)
*Super naps were formally called ‘bankers’
Did you know that as well as checking the realtime prices on BETDAQ below – you can also log into your account and place your bets directly into BETDAQ from BETDAQ TIPS.
