DAQMAN on FRIDAY

Friday 30 January 10-1 GAMBLE: Daqman was in on the Wincanton gamble yesterday. James De Vassy had never seen a racecourse until backed down to 11-4 SP from a morning 11.0 on Betdaq. Daqman declared this was his best meeting of the day, and so it proved. But his other Wincanton bet, Oiseau De Nuit (2nd 7-2), was beaten by Tony McCoy’s mount in a photo and it was also ‘seconditis’ at Thurles with Ballysassian (2nd 9-2). Daqman says his piece about Tony McCoy’s 3,000-wins celebrations today. And he may have found ‘another James De Vassy’, unraced in England, trading 12.5 for a novice hurdle at Catterick. We don’t get much practice at the good stuff, do we? No sooner had we get stuck into some meat and gravy at Thurles and Nad Al Sheba than we are back to bacon-butties at Catterick after further abandonments. How many more times, asks Bill in the betting shop, are they going to headline Tony McCoy’s 3,000 bid as if today’s the day, and it’s called off? The short answer is that McCoy deserves every word. We get blasé, as if Denman ran every day or there were free drinks every day at your local (mine has a sign up saying ‘free beer tomorrow’): we would get used to it and the novelty would wear off. McCoy is so good that that’s how it is: he is to jumps what Lester Piggott was to the Flat, Mohammad Ali was to boxing: the one and only. And he cost me yesterday. He costs me every time I drop my guard; in comes the sucker punch when I’m not looking. Who else would have got home on Stradbrook: giving exactly a stone to my bet, Oiseau De Nuit, challenged on both sides, headed and rallied to ‘a personal-best effort under a typically strong ride from the champion.’ Quote, unquote, Racing Post analysis. We’ve run out of adjectives, you see: ‘typically strong ride’ is the best we can do. With Piggott, they used to say he ‘lifted the horse over the line’; with Ali, pundits went pale, stunned as their box of superlatives emptied out. I feel lucky to have seen these three incredible athletes who, unlike some soccer players we all could name, had or have a quality about them that is way above the bar set by so many of today’s ‘celebs.’ So Man Of The Moment (4.10 Chepstow) passes us by; but there will be many more moments from the hungry hero, the real McCoy. Best race of the day is the Happy 70th Birthday John Jarvis Handicap at Catterick (2.00), and that prompts us to remember that every day somebody is somebody else’s hero in racing: trainer, jockey, owner, horse or, in this case, the sponsor or his subject for birthday greetings. That’s what this great game is all about. With six last-time-out winners straight down the card in this, from numbers five to 10, it takes some solving: but they all have their ‘ifs and buts’. Ceoperk, Justwhateverulike and More Like It have all looked more comfortable at 2m; Whatcanysay wins only at Sedgefield; Royal Hilarity is up 15lb; and Cardington has been off the track since around the time Sir Percy won the Derby. I’ll have my pound on Flake; 7.2 on Betdaq. His chase-form figures here are 112 (the second was off a higher mark in this race last year) and he’s just coming back to from. The worry is his weight on the ground compared, for instance, with De Boitron’s, 24lb lower, down the bottom of the handicap and showing signs that this is lenient after a wind operation: a 13.5 trade was tempting. The De Boitron team of Ferdy Murphy and Graham Lee have an interesting ex-Irish runner, Viel Gluck (3.10): 12.5 the win with a decent place-cover trade at 3.65 as I write. The Supreme Leader gelding caught the eye in a classy bumper won by potentially one of the top hurdlers in waiting, Hurricane Fly. Woolston Ferry (2.45 Lingfield) is miles clear in the ratings, is from a stable in form and has won a claimer before. Similarly, in tonight’s claimer, Blue Tomato (6.50 Wolverhampton) and Harry Up are rated well superior to any of their opponents and, if we rely on young William Carson’s allowance and Dandy Nicholls’ skill with sprinters, we can get 2-1 in a two-horse race. Our opponent is Jamie Spencer, who also has the next two favourites: Lady Vivien (7.20) ought to confirm her well-backed handicap win off this mark; she has the profile of an improver.
TODAY'S BETS
BET 2pts win FLAKE, and 1pt win and place DE BOITRON (2.00 Catterick) BET 6pts win WOOLSTON FERRY (2.45 Lingfield) BET 1pt win and place VIEL GLUCK (3.10 Catterick) BET 4pts win BLUE TOMATO (6.50 Wolverhampton) BET 8pts win LADY VIVIEN (7.20 Wolverhampton)
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