DAQMAN’S TAKING A 17-5 LEAD TO CHESTER: It’s Chester Cup day, with Daqman lining up two against Pricewise after winning three weekend Classics and going 17-5 up on his Racing Post archrival, 32 points clear to a single-unit level stake. They clash today in the 3.00 and 3.35 Chester.

SEE HOW THEY RUN IN THE FILLIES’ CLASSIC: Equally vital to Daqman’s day is a good result in the Cheshire Oaks, in which he goes nap on his 25-1 Epsom Oaks bet, Enable. He, therefore, opens his column with a trials check on the Oaks runners, as he did for the Derby yesterday. See How They Run!


SPOT THE OAKS WINNER..

Early Bird fly in today! This column put up John Gosden’s Enable for the Oaks when 25-1 at the time I launched my Early Birds column.

Now here is judgment day. She must win this afternoon’s Cheshire Oaks if she is to be the glory girl among at least four John Gosden hopefuls for Epsom.

The stable was third in the 1,000 Guineas, so should know all about the Ballydoyle mob (Rhododendron, Winter et al).

She was my early Classic selection because, though beaten in her Newbury trial by stablemate Shutter Speed, she was the one finishing well.

And, most important, as a daughter of Nathaniel, she could improve rapidly this Spring. Nathaniel had to bow to a certain Frankel on his two-year-old debut and it took him three attempts to break his maiden.

Then he finished second in the Vase here at Chester before a sensational Ascot double of King Edward V11 Stakes and King George.

Camerone (Ralph Beckett) Lingfield Oaks Trial, Saturday. By Galileo out of a Sinndar mare

Coronet (John Gosden) Prix Saint-Alary, Sunday. Half-sister to St Leger runner-up. Second and third have won from her maiden, which she would have won more easily but she stopped to look at herself on the big screen!

Enable (John Gosden) Cheshire Oaks today.

Gracious Diana (John Gosden) Won at Newbury last month and goes there again on May 20

Horseplay (Andrew Balding). Stamina her strong suit.

Isabel de Urbina (Ralph Beckett) Runner-up to Horseplay in the Newmarket Pretty Polly at the Guineas meeting.

Promise To Be True (Aidan O’Brien) Placed in two Criteriums in France. In Saturday’s Blue Wind at The Curragh.

Rhododendron (Aidan O’Brien) Late finish in the 1,000 Guineas after poor passage through the race.

Rich Legacy (Ralph Beckett) Cheshire Oaks. ‘Not grown’ says the trainer.

Shutter Speed (John Gosden) Musidora Stakes, York next week. Beat a colt, Raheen House, to win at Newbury in April.

Sobetsu (Saeed Bin Suroor) French 1,000 Guineas, Saturday, or Prix Saint-Alary, Sunday. Dubawi filly related to Oaks winner Imagine on the dam’s side.

Talaayeb Dam’s line goes back to Nashwan. Big leap forward when fourth in the 1,000 Guineas.

The Sky is Blazing (William Haggas) Lingfield Oaks Trial. Daughter of Sea The Stars.

Winter (Aidan O’Brien). Impressive winner of the 1,000 Guineas.

Crimson Rock and Tocco d’Amore are both doubtful at this stage


25-1 ENABLE MY CLASSIC BET

1.50 Chester Two-year-old races are not always to the strong, nor to the famous Chester low draw! Stalls 8, 10, 2, 5, 4 have won in recent years and early maturity counts more than long-term ability.

So all is not lost for twice winners of this since 2010, Tom Dascombe (Big Time Maybe in 10) and Mark Johnston (Emilia James in 9).

Big Time Maybe was short-headed at Bath by a winner since who has been talked about for the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The market usually knows best. There’s been only one winner bigger than 13-2 in the decade. Big Time Maybe was 6.2 the win, and slightly better than evens a place, in the BETDAQ orange this morning.

2.25 Chester (Cheshire Oaks) The first Oaks of the campaign and five from Ballydoyle, all down the pecking order, have been good enough to win it for Aidan O’Brien since 2008.

So Alluringly is likely to be the main danger to my 25-1 Oaks bet Enable. Her maiden at Tipperary was a modest affair and she could do no more than win it comfortably.

By the sire of Champion Stakes winner Fascinating Rock, her dam’s side has lines going back to Sea The Stars and Galileo.

Rich Legacy won the May Hill but has to carry a penalty for that and hasn’t grown over the winter.


SPENCER HERO OF THE HOUR

3.00 Chester This time the draw is vital. The handicapper has worked hard to equalize the horses, and the cut away facilitates a more open track, but still the stalls persist in their bias.

No winner in the decade has been drawn higher than seven, and 27 of the 30 placed horses all came out of single-figure stalls.

It’s three years since Sir Maximillian (stall 3) won this race but he’s super fit from the Meydan season.

Confessional (in 6) scored way back in 2010, and hasn’t been seen for 200 days. Like Confessional, Seamster (stall 9) is 10 now and 7lb higher than his most recent winning form.

Reflektor (in 4) needs rain, Spring Loaded (5) landed a 6f AW four-timer last Spring but has not shown the same form on turf or at 5f. Taexali (2) is a short runner, high enough in the weights, and has won only his maiden, always a bad sign.

El Astronaute (in 1) has a 2lb pull on Majestic Hero (7) though he beat him a short-head at levels at Newmarket in April.

Majestic Hero, who had a wind op over the winter, has won since on the super-fast sprint track at Epsom. But so has El Astronaute and he’s the only low-drawn runner to have scored in class 2 on turf, bar Confessional who has failed here the last twice from stalls 5 and 6.

Blithe Spirit (stall 8) has won five times over this CD but has never won drawn higher than five, though has finished second from gate 9.

VERDICT: After his wind op, Majestic Hero (9.4 on BETDAQ early mouse) looks a different horse for a quality-sprints stable. Needed only hands and heels riding by Jamie Spencer to win at Epsom and went too soon on the tougher track at Newmarket when outgunned by El Astronaute, who has to be the saver.


WHO DARES WINS THE CUP

3.35 Chester Cup Strangely for a marathon race, stalls positions are again paramount. Six winners have been drawn one to five and 90% of placed horses have come from single-figure stalls.

The draw advantage becomes a vital edge in a handicap like this one, where only 5lb covers the bottom 10 (nine of the last 10 winners have been weighted within the parameter 8st 11lb to 9st 4lb).

Low numbers are likely to spread them out early, with Blakeney Point (in the 1 stall) and Watersmeet (gate 6) front runners in the past, and all five around them bar Montaly van runners.

They include Who Dares Wins (in 7), who looks primed for this. A hurdles career up to Graded level has made a man of him since he scored here over shorter last summer: 7.0 in the BETDAQ orange, as I write.

First Mohican and Sea Of Heaven, second and third in the Cesarewitch, are both drawn wide, but the fourth horse, hampererd that day, The Cashel Man, is in gate 8.

The Cashel Man, a 10.5 BETDAQ offer, likes today’s firmish surface and goes well fresh. Has a weights pull on Nakeeta, who beat him at York, and on a line through that one is ahead of Sea Of Heaven and Golden Spear.

I’m just worried that Chester is not the right track for an out-and-out galloper. So I take the improver, Blakeney Point (8.0 offers), as a my second choice, sneaking in off bottomweight yet also claimed off.

DAQMAN’S BETS (to win 20 points)
BET 4pts win and place BIG TIME MAYBE (1.50 Chester)
BET 10pts win (nap) ENABLE (2.25 Chester)
BET 2.5pts win and place MAJESTIC HERO and 2pts win (stakes saver) EL ASTRONAUTE (3.00 Chester)
BET 3pts win on each BLAKENEY POINT and WHO DARES WINS (3.35 Chester)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 5pts win double Enable (2.25 Chester) and Elucidation (8.25 Chelmsford City)
EARLY BIRD: Enable


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