3-1 WINNER FOR THE SECOND DAY RUNNING: Those who gave up on me yesterday, condemned to a cuppasoup in the Sir Antony McCoy Stand at Taunton today, got out of trouble with a 3-1 winner for the second day running. Sunblazer (WON 3-1) cleared the losses at SP, just as Gracious John (WON 3-1) doubled your money on Tuesday. Festive Gluhwein all round!
5.1 QUALITY IN PADDIES’ FIELD..
It may be Taunton’s Top Notch race. But the horse of that name is odds on for the £50,000 transferred-from-Huntingdon Peterborough Chase, another small field for an expensive conditions race, albeit the best seen there in Taunton’s history.
1.35 Taunton Our Merlin, a 1.84 offer this morning, has a double penalty for two quick wins already in December, which hike him 17lb, bidding for the hat-trick three days after an easy second leg.
Another one up in the weights is Tobacco Road, 8lb higher for a CD win here at Taunton in November, with the third horse home, New Millenium, now weighted to reverse the placings but 15.5 early mouse. That’s value.
2.10 Taunton Garo De Juilley is a course-and-distance winner here but from a field of only three other runners who have all failed to reach the frame since.
Compare that with the winning form of joint-top weight The Welsh Paddies, and you wonder how they could be racing off the same mark.
A 5.1 chance this morning, Paddies won over further at Warwick, beating Jubulani, who was a subsequent six-lengths winner and ran in the prestigious Ladbrokes Hurdle at Newbury.
Molineaux was 26 lengths behind The Welsh Paddies at Warwick, and Flat-bred stablemate Padleyourowncanoe must surely be a doubtful stayer and a bit young to battle with the mature animals.
Polly’s Pursuit doesn’t appear to have the usual clout of a Nicky Henderson runner but you never can tell with Nicky!
THAT TOP MAN HENDERSON AGAIN
2.45 Taunton (Peterborough Chase) This race has been saved, though punters could be forgiven for asking why. There’s nearly £30,000 to the winner of an event they will find it hard to get involved in.
Nicky Henderson is associated with three of the runners. He saddles the odds-on favourite Top Notch and the generally disappointing Josses Hill, but winner of the race last year (10.5 this morning for a repeat).
Henderson also knows all about Vaniteux, who looks a bum steer bought out of his stable for £125,000.
Do you really want a cast-off from the Nicky Henderson winner factory or Paul Nicholls’ Ditcheat machine? I can only think of one that got away. Nicholls had Silver Birch before Gordon Elliott took over and showed him how to train it to win a Grand National. Hey, ho, Silver! (Yes, this column was on!).
David Pipe has bought some blinkers for Vaniteux. Or perhaps he’s just using the pair the buyers were wearing when they spent that 125 grand!
Top Notch was impressive in scoring only 19 days ago at this level at Ascot, beating a horse called Frodon further than did Might Bite at Sandown a fortnight earlier.
Ptit Zig is simply not good enough over hurdles these days. Nothing to do but try him over fences again. He’s won three at Grade-2 level but you have to go back to 2015.
That year he was going as well as the winner of this Peterborough Chase when he fell at the last. I’ll have a pound on Josses Hill at around 10.0 in case anything goes wrong with the favourite, but I’ll put both in my Daq Multiples.
BOLT FROM THE BLUE AT BETDAQ 5.7
3.15 Taunton Coeur Tantre has back-to-back successes over hurdles on his CV but he has always been a summer winner and has raced only once over fences.
Neil Mulholland (Perfect Timing) is 0-32, so the one most likely to is Dream Bolt, five times a winner and not disgraced when raised to class 2 at Newbury on the last day.
James Bowen’s allowance takes him 4lb below his last winning mark, and 5.7 on BETDAQ this morning was a bolt from the blue.
3.50 Taunton Punters don’t look at the small print so this handicap hurdle should be renamed with ‘maiden’ inserted into the title.
Mondello (0-17), Sahara Haze (0-15) and Cheque En Blanc (0-11) are the worst offenders against punting decency, 43 races down the pan without a win among them.
You could say there’s one ‘winner’ in the race. David Pipe’s Midnight Magic was the ‘moral winner’ on the last day here at Taunton, where his father, Martin, saddled his first ever winner in 1975.
Midnight Magic was third, beaten little more than a length, giving weight to the first two. He was sandwiched between two last-time-out winners, so the form looks solid, and 6.4 BETDAQ offers tempting.
BETDAQ TIPS
1.35 Taunton (win 20)
1.3pts win and place NEW MILLENIUM
2.10 Taunton (win 30)
BET 7.5pts win (nap) THE WELSH PADDIES
2.45 Taunton (win 20)
BET 2pts win and place JOSSES HILL
3.15 Taunton (to win 30)
BET 6.5pts win DREAM BOLT
3.50 Taunton (to win 30)
BET 5.5pts win MIDNIGHT MAGIC
DAQ MULTIPLES: 2 x 2pt win doubles Our Merlin and New Millenium (1.35 Taunton) with Top Notch and Josses Hill (2.45 Taunton) PLUS 4 x 1pt win trebles the same four with The Welsh Paddies (2.10 Taunton)
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.
