Daqman on Saturday

Daqman was in dramatic form yesterday with River Indus (WON 8-1) & Lightning Strike (WON 2-1).

How to ride a horse in the mud?  Keep up with the pace and he might run out of steam; lie off the pace and he might not be able to make up the ground. That’s one reason why there are shock results and that’s why it’s vital to have under you enough stamina to give you the confidence to run your race.

Pancake (2.05 Sandown) has already won three furlongs further than his first chase test today and on heavy ground, too.

Despite the small field, there’ll be some pace on via front-runner Marodima; professionals will want to lay that one and the top two are on penalties which means they are giving 12lb each to Pancake.

Trainer Hobbs did the same trick in this last year: Fair Along was the only runner below 11st, so leniently treated that he was able to thrash My Way De Solzen 10 lengths.

If, as the yard is saying, Pancake is in the form of his life at home and is fancied for the Arkle when they all meet again at levels, then he must win this on these terms.

No layers in Somerset are safe today, since Hobbs has yankee hopes through County Zen (12.55) – but this time he’s giving the weight – Saunders Road (1.30), Pancake  and Ring The Boss (3.10)

Saunders Road was second favourite when I checked on the Daq this morning, but at 15.5. I can’t remember such one-horse trading in a Saturday handicap with as a big a field as this.

The way things are going, you’ll be able to buy odds a place about the second favourite that are three times the win odds offered on the hot-pot favourite, The Tother One. Extraordinary.

With Ring The Boss, it’s Hobbs’ turn to have a hot potato, though this time it’s around 6-1 bar one and it’s a harder race in which to find some meat and gravy.

But, again, I’ll take the second favourite: European Dream, a useful Flat performer, has fared very well in good company over hurdles but also he is a four-year-old, winners of three of the last four runnings of the race.

In fact, ages of past winners suggest that it’s 6-1 a 4yo; 13-1 a 7yo, 14-1 a 6yo and 42-1 against a 5yo: these stats also isolate European Dream (bet) and Ring The Boss (saver) as the two to concentrate on.

Imagine you have a filly whose breeding would recommend her for the Paddocks but she is difficult, temperamental or on the weak side and you have to spend hours of patient training of both physical and mental ability: a win by Sir Mark Prescott for the Loder family stud interests would be almost like a Derby winner if Noble Plum (7.0 Wolverhampton) repays all that input by the master trainer.

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BET 8pts win banker PANCAKE (2.05 Sandown)
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BET 1pt win and 3pts place SAUNDERS ROAD (1.30 Sandown)
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BET 2pts win RING THE BOSS and 3pts win EUROPEAN DREAM (3.10 Sandown)
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BET 6pts win NOBLE PLUM (7.00 Wolverhampton)
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* Don’t forget Hong Kong tomorrow morning: Quijano (6.40) has little to find with Dylan Thomas on a line through Youmzain and Darjina (7.50), who beat Ramonti in Paris, can return to her best with conditions to suit (1pt win on each selection).