VALUE HUNTER AT FOUR MEETINGS: The cunning staking plan of that old fox Daqman kept him in profit yet again yesterday, thanks to Fox Coach (WON 13-8). Today he journeys from Beverley to Deauville, then to Salisbury and finally to Gowran Park tonight in search of value in the quality races.


ONE STALL BIG BOOST FOR CURFEW

2.00 Beverley In the good old bad old days, the Beverley draw was decisive. I never could feel comfortable backing the low numbers blind, but I knew a man in a Porsche who did.

Though not so strong, the bias is still there, particularly in sprints, particularly it seems where immature animals, such as two-year-olds, are helped by this invisible aid.

There’s quite a test for that in the opener here today, split into two divisions last year and won by stalls 1 and 2.

It was 5 beat 1 when Dancing Rave won here on the last day of July, with Under Curfew little more than a length behind in fifth.

Under Curfew (around 3.0) is now in the one stall, with Dancing Rave out in the car park, drawn 12.

Of those racing alongside him, Haggswood Boy (in 2) was 100-1 shot on his debut, and trainer Ronald Thompson hasn’t had a juvenile winner from 51 starters in the last four years.

I can’t find a two-year-old debutant winner for Grant Tuer (Kemmeridge Bay in 3), and Tick Tock Crock (4) might be seen to better advantage stepped up a furlong or two. He’s had to drop back to novice races after flopping on his handicap debut.

The reverse seems to be the position for Furyan. Drop back from 7f unlikely to help and next time in a handicap may be best to catch him.


STUDY TODAY’S BETDAQ ARC OFFERS

3.20 Deauville On lines through Intellogent, the French Derby winner Study Of Man would come in only 12th in my ratings list for three-year-olds, published in yesterday’s column.

He needs this Group 2 today (1m 2f) if he is to find 10lb or more before the Arc, for which he was 13.0 on BETDAQ this morning.

But his Chantilly Derby looks solid, with the form boosted by Intellogent (won Prix Jean Prat but later eight lengths off Alpha Centauri), Hunting Horn (beat John Gosden’s Crossed Baton at Royal Ascot) and Irish Derby runner-up Rostropovich.

Among the opposition again today is Crossed Baton, the Blue Riband Trial winner, who represents Gosden’s Arc interests with Cracksman (6.8 offers for Longchamp) and Roaring Lion (44.0).

Crossed Baton divided Gyllen and Louis d’Or in the Grand Prix de Maisons-Laffitte a month back.

Louis D’Or had also finished third to Study of Man in the French Derby, a head behind Patascoy, with Intellogent another head away fourth.

This gives you some idea of where everything stands. It leaves Crossed Baton (Frankie Dettori) with every chance here but he does look pretty much exposed, and Study of Man ought to score, indeed must win it to have any hope in the Arc.


THROUGH STOUTE’S CRYSTAL BALL..

3.40 Salisbury Henry Candy and Sir Michael Stoute (two wins each in nine years) tend to plot this one up, Henry with older horses, Stoute with three-year-olds.

As a Nathaniel, Crystal Hope was expected to improve after drawing clear of a novice field at Sandown in the Spring but she hasn’t been seen since a subsequent seven-lengths defeat, going for some black type in a Listed at Newbury.

The word ‘flop’ was used at the time, and there was certainly something not quite right, but in hindsight not a lot when you consider that the first two home were Sea Of Class and Athena, both now Group-1 winners.

I named Sea of Class (rated 115 officially; 117 by me) one of my top six three-year-olds this season, after her Irish Oaks success under only hands and heels riding.

Ribblesdale fourth and Pretty Polly third, Athena won the Belmont Oaks, so Grade 1 not Group 1 but now rated 113.

It would normally be a long way back for 4.1 BETDAQ offer Crystal Hope but she is in the master’s hands and her 91 mark must surely be an understatement.


WE KNOW CURLY LIKES THE COURSE

6.10 Gowran Park (Hurry Harriet Stakes) Aidan O’Brien and Dermot Weld seem to win this in alternate years. Two of Welds four in the decade were older horses, and he puts one up again in Bella Estrella.

O’Brien’s trio of winners since 2012 have all been three-year-olds, and he aims three at the target today.

High numbers are best, with only one winner in the decade from a stall below 6, and that was on heavy ground. We don’t know how much rain will fall today but surely not enough to turn the going heavy.

Hence for O’Brien ran Bella Estrella to a neck at Killarney, unsuited by the slow pace Declan McDonogh was allowed to set on the winner.

There wssn’t a penny or an old punt for Curly in a small-field Group 3 on the last day but she was 4.0 favourite on BETDAQ this morning, also unsuited by a poor pace that day and now expected to confirm the promise of her maiden winner here at Gowran.

Liquid Amber hasn’t been seen since the Newmarket 1,000 Guineas. But if she comes out of the race half as well in first time visor as Wild Illusion and Laurens, she may get involved.


MYLES TO GO BEFORE YOU SLEEP..

I made a mistake the other day. As you do in life and when writing stuff. I left out one of the Fortune Cookies winners and (twice as sinful) omitted to mention one of its losers.

Some of the Press works on the assumption that nobody cares or that people complain all the time anyway. We don’t. I don’t. Not where betting honour is concerned. But nobody wrote in.

Such was the silence that I thought of doing a Brian O’Nolan and writing in to complain about myself, as he did of his own column in the Irish Times, using a pseudonym of course.

The great man had as many pen-names as pens. He goes down in literary history, or at least in the compendium of poetry, as Flann O’Brien (‘A Pint Of Plain is Your Only Man’). But if you haven’t read The Best of Myles, stories from his Irish Times column under a different name, you haven’t lived!

The Collected Letters Of Flann O’Brien, just out, is a bit early for Christmas, so get it now. It’s hardly a bedtime book; certainly his work was never that. You need a whole day with with it because you can’t put it down.

In fact, they could space the year out nicely in Ireland by following on St Patrick’s Day in March and Bloomsday in June with a Myles To Go day in October, the month of his birth in 1911. A day when it would be mandatory to read his stuff, have yourself a pint, and cry and laugh about it all again.

Apart from my unforgivable sin (to be amended in Fortune Cookies next week), I was nudged into writing this tribute because of timely mention (literally so) of 1911.

If you’re not yet totally sick of temperature stories, heatwave sagas and the interminable comparison to 1976, take a look at 1911. Now that really was hot. I wasn’t there (so don’t write in); but there is a book about it..

DAQMAN’S BETS (to win 20)
BET 10pts win UNDER CURFEW (2.00 Beverley)
BET 7pts win STUDY OF MAN (3.20 Deauville)
BET 6.5pts win CRYSTAL HOPE (3.40 Salisbury)
BET 6.5pts win (nap) CURLY (6.10 Gowran Park)


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