100-POINT BETDAQ BONUS PLUNGE: Royal Ascot arrives amid World Cup fever, so Daqman bids for bigger profit goals with Betdaq Bonus Bets today, one to win 75 points and one to win 100, both with place stakes to win 20. His headlines today:
RHODODENDRON TO BLOOM AGAIN
CALYX AND COSMIC ON THE DRAW
AURELIA IN A DIFFERENT LEAGUE
HE’S A STAR WITHOUT ANY DOUBT
VEGAS WORTH SPIN OF THE WHEEL
SHARJA BRIDGE FINALE CHARGE
DAQMAN LEADING 107 POINTS UP: In the Daqman v Pricewise battle for value, Daqman leads 30-9 (he’s 107 points clear with a profit of +27 to Pricewise loss of -80).
RHODODENDRON TO BLOOM AGAIN
2.30 Royal Ascot, (Queen Anne Stakes) It’s a case of seeing double in the Queen Anne, but which double?
Rhododendron steps into the hoofprints of Ribchester and tries to follow up his Lockinge Stakes victory, while Recoletos attempts to repeat Solow’s Prix d’Ispahan prelude to Queen Anne success.
The Lockinge runner-up of 2017, Lightning Spear, failed to turn around the form with Ribchester (he was ninth at Royal Ascot) and he was runner-up again at Newbury this year with, at seven years old, only a modest chance of revenge over Rhododendron.
In fact, no winner over the age of five has won the Queen Anne for over 40 years. Not a one. Four-year-olds, like Rhododendron, are 13-5 up on five-year-olds this century.
It was the fifth time in the decade that the Newbury race had provided the Queen Anne winner: three had won the Lockinge, with two unplaced in it.
Can anything unplaced behind Rhododendron get revenge? Well, another pointer to her success today is that her trainer has withdrawn the Lockinge third, Lancaster Bomber, and the fourth horse, Dutch Connection, has also dropped out.
Aidan O’Brien has left Deauville in, after that one did a good job of setting the pace at Newbury.
VERDICT: Benbatl relies on Meydan form, which rarely works out on English turf. Recoletos is unproven on fast ground, whereas the American Grade-1 winner Yoshida will love the conditions, though he is only around the level of Deauville on collateral form. America won the race two years ago.
Limato ran too freely on his first attempt at a mile but has 11 lengths to make up on Rhododendron.
1 RHODODENDRON (3.3 on BETDAQ), 2 Yoshida (16.0), 3 Recoletos (6.6)
CALYX AND COSMIC ON THE DRAW
3.05 Royal Ascot, (Coventry Stakes) Sergei Prokofiev, a strong, speedy type, is by Scat Daddy, whose son Justify has just won the American Triple Crown.
But he’s a lonely boy today. The low draw (in stall 4) is a negative for him, particularly with his market rivals coming out of gates 15 (Cosmic Law), 21 (Burj), 22 (the highly-regarded Kingman colt Calyx) and 23 (The Irish Rover), who holds Blown By The Wind (13).
On a line through a colt called It’s The Only Way, Barbill (stall 24) has a shout on collateral form, though only second to The Irish Rover at Newbury.
It’s The Only Way was less than three lengths off the winner that day but then more than eight off Cosmic Law in the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom, though that was on soft ground. Barbill’s yard has had 17 two-year-old winners this year.
VERDICT: 1 CALYX (3.65 BETDAQ), 2 Cosmic Law (12.0), 3 Sergei Prokofiev (4.0)
AURELIA IN A DIFFERENT LEAGUE
3.40 Royal Ascot (Kings Stand Stakes) Three-year-olds used to do well in this, and that seemed to be revived last year when Lady Aurelia won, first second-season animal to score since Equiano (2008), who did the double, albeit with a one-year-gap between.
A third of the 30 left in at this stage were three-year-olds but only three remain, two of them for Aidan O’Brien, with Different League ridden Ryan Moore but drawn 4, and with stablemate Battle Of Jericho, rated 7lb inferior and from the one stall.
Washington DC (in 2) completes the Ballydoyle team. And you can’t help thinking that, with eight winners, in the decade having coming from stalls 7 to 18, the strategy will be for the O’Brien low-stalls trio to make their own pace.
Different League won the Albany on fast Ascot ground at this meeting a year ago, and could pose a threat to Lady Aurelia’s double bid.
The Lady’s main rival seems to be Battaash, easy 2017 winner of the Prix de l’Abbaye, but he was well behind her in the Nunthorpe last autumn and he beat one of the O’Brien trio, Washington DC, only a head in the Temple Stakes.
VERDICT: 1 LADY AURELIA (3.05 on BETDAQ), 2 Different League (23.0), 3 Battash (3.5)
HE’S A STAR WITHOUT ANY DOUBT
4.20 Royal Ascot, (St James’s Palace Stakes) Only two winners in the decade have been bigger than 5-2, which is currently around the best offer about Without Parole on BETDAQ (3.65). This is the only Daqman nap I revealed last week.
I’m not going to change my mind. He would have won the Newmarket Guineas had he not suffered a foot problem, particularly now we know that Saxon Warrior and Roaring Lion were short on stamina or unreliable, or both.
Romanised beat US Navy Flag, Gustav Klimt and Threeandfourpence in the Irish 2,000 and may do so again. On a line through Gustav Klimt, he comes out further in front of Tip Top Two than was Saxon Warrior.
VERDICT: 1 WITHOUT PAROLE (4.1 on BETDAQ), 2 Romanised (6.6), 3 Tip Top Two (7.0)
VEGAS WORTH SPIN OF THE WHEEL
5.00 Royal Ascot (Ascot Stakes) This used to be one of my favourite races for punting, spotting the plots among the lightweights. Now look! Only a 9lb range, and the spot is which of five Willie Mullins’ runners will win.
He’s won it three times in six seasons, all ridden by Ryan Moore, who is on Chelkar today. He’s a mystery horse.
First run for Willie Mullins. First run beyond 1m 2f. But entered up in a series of big staying events, including the Irish St Leger.
Stratum (Robert Winston) has scored only once on the Flat, also 1m 2f and on foirm. Butc he’s a useful hurdler.
Merxi Devie (Mickael Barcelona) has won over extreme distances but all her good form is on the soft.
Whisky Sour (Christophe Soumillon) won a big handicap at the 2017 Galway festival (2m 1f), and was third in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham.
But my pick of the Mullins quintet is Lagostovegas (Andrea Atzeni). She looks very well in here, 19lb better for three lengths with Whiskey Sour on that Galway form, and she likes fast ground.
Look My Way and Coeur De Lion are neck and neck on Chester form, and I fancy Dannyday as the English number one.
One time winner of the Northumberland Vase, he came back recently after a long break and a gelding op. That Sir Michael Stoute has kept him going speaks volumes, and that this time around he’s entered for the Nortumberland Plate itself, not the consolation, says a successful season is anticipated.
VERDICT: 1 LAGOSTOVEGAS (12.0 on BETDAQ), 2 Dannyday (11.5), 3 Chelkar (6.4)
SHARJA BRIDGE FINALE CHARGE
5.35 Royal Ascot (Wolferton Stakes) Yucatan has won only his maiden, always a bad sign, and Mirage Dancer might be in the same category but was gifted a slowly-run Listed at Goodwood from Euginio, albeit quickening up well.
Fabricate, Morando, Autocratic and Spark Plug are all close together on form at today’s weights. Laraaib was well in front of Fabricate at Sandown but separated by only a head from Euginio at Haydock.
Leshlaa (holds Monarchs Glen) plummets from Group 1 and beat some strong English form in a turf handicap at Meydan. The question marks are: can he give the weight? Can he revive the flagging fortunes of Saeed Bin Suroor?
Eight out of 10 winners come from the low eight stalls. Seven out of 10 are four-year-olds.
That gives us only Mirage Dancer but I’ll stretch a point and make Leshlaa (from 9) my outsider, neither in my opinion capable of beating Sharja Bridge, who looked a sure future winner when the moral at Newmarket, beaten half a length but giving away weight.
VERDICT: 1 SHARJA BRIDGE, 2 Leshlaa, 3 Mirage Dancer
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.30 Royal Ascot (win 30, place to win 20)
BET 9pts win RHODODENDRON
BET 6pts place YOSHIDA*
(see Betdaq Bonus Bets)
3.05 Royal Ascot (win 30)
BET 11pts win CALYX
BET 1.75pts win and place COSMIC LAW
3.40 Royal Ascot (win 20)
BET 10pts win LADY AURELIA
BET 4pts place DIFFERENT LEAGUE*
(see Betdaq Bonus Bets)
4.20 Royal Ascot (win 50)
BULL’S-EYE BET 16pts win (nap) WITHOUT PAROLE
BULL’S-EYE BET 8.5pts win ROMANISED
5.00 Royal Ascot (win 30)
BET 3pts win LAGOSTOVEGAS
BET 3pts win DANNYDAY
BET 1pt win (stakes saver) CHELKAR
5.35 Royal Ascot (win 30)
BET 4.5pts win SHARJA BRIDGE
BET 1pt win and place LESHLAA
BET 1pt win (stakes saver) MIRAGE DANCER
FORTUNE COOKIES
3.05 Cosmic Law
3.40 Blue Point
4.20 Without Parole
5.35 Sharja Bridge
*BETDAQ BONUS BETS
Today’s selections which Daqman reckons are the ‘wrong’ price in the BETDAQ offers are staked to the odds he wanted:
10-1 wanted YOSHIDA (offers of 16.0 in BETDAQ orange)
Stake to win 50 is 10 x 5pts, but 5pts at 16.0 gives you 75.
10-1 wanted DIFFERENT LEAGUE (offers of 21.0 in BETDAQ orange)
Stake to win 50 is 10 x 5pts, but 5pts at 21.0 = 100.
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.
