Double Dutch, 18th November 2014

Double Dutch

Double Dutch, 18th November 2014

We failed in our bid to land a hat-trick of successful doubles yesterday, as we had to settle for a winner and a runner-up from our two races.

As predicted, Mystery Drama finished ahead of Miracle Cure at Leicester, but I hadn’t fancied Malanos’ chances of a return to form after a string of heavy defeats. As Sod’s Law tends to dictate in these affairs, Malanos beat Mystery Drama by just over two lengths, fully utilising his 21lb advantage in testing conditions.

This, of course, meant that only my personal pride was at stake in the Plumpton race 70 minutes later. I fancied Little Boy Boru to win the race, based on past efforts, but was interested in the French newcomer Virtuose du Chenet running for a yard in form. There was little to separate them in the early markets, but the finished first and last of nine runners, over 120 lengths apart!

Monday’s results were as follows:

Mystery Drama: 2nd at 5/2 (adv 7/2)
Miracle Cure: u/p at 7/1 (adv 4/1)
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Little Boy Boru: won at 11/8 (adv 2/1)
Virtuose du Chenet: u/p at 4/1 (adv 12/5)

Results to date:
411 winning selections from 1427 = 28.80%
132 winning bets in 371 days = 35.58%

Stakes: 741.50pts
Returns: 822.08pts

P/L : +80.58pts (+10.87% ROI)

REMINDER: THERE IS NO DOUBLE DUTCH ON SUNDAYS

Here’s how I hope Tuesday pans out…

1.40 Southwell:

Mick Appleby has a really good record here on the A/W at Southwell and employs the services of talented 5lb claimer Ali Rawlinson here on board 3/1 BOG (Stan James) shot Mops Angel, who has produced two decent runs since returning from a year off the track, finishing third most recently at Nottingham when staying on to only be beaten by a head and a neck over 5 furlongs.

Only two runners from that race 13 days ago have run again since but she beat Time Medician and Dynamo Walt by 2.5L and 3.25L respectively, with the former stepping up 6f at Kempton to be a runner-up last week, whilst Dynamo Walt was a fairly comfortable winner at Wolverhampton on Saturday.

The other one to keep an eye on here is Best Tamayuz at 16/5 BOG with Betbright, who absolutely bolted up here 5 days ago when wearing a hood for the first time, which seems to have helped bring a decent run our of him. He led from well before halfway that day and although he carries a 2lb penalty for that win, still runs off bottom weight and can now call upon the undoubted ability of Luke Morris to help eke a little bit more out if needed.

*

3.20 Doncaster:

I think Monskgold is the one to take here at 21/10 BOG with Betbright. Both his trainer and his jockey have good recent records here at Doncaster and trainer Alan King has publicly said he thinks the horse should be much better this season after “not being right” last term. nevertheless, he closed out last spring with two decent third place finishes at Wincanton and Chepstow, with the winner from Chepstow subsequently a stepping up in class to win again on his own seasonal reappearance last week.

Alan King also has a good return from his handicap debutants and if Monksgold continues to progress as expected, this could be yet anoter success for the yard, but based on recent exploits, it would be foolish to ignore the chances of the Hobbs/Johnson partnership aboard Cloud Creeper. Both trainer and jockey are in exceptional form of late and both have good records here at Doncaster. This combo was 6/9 at Cheltenham last week and have an excellent 24.5% (57/233) strike rate this year.

Cloud Creeper hasn’t quite kicked on from his good form in the spring and looked like he needed the run when reappearing after 162 days at Chepstow five weeks ago. He should strip fitter for having had that run, he loves the soft ground and the slight drop in trip should also help. If I’m honest, I don’t expect him to win this race, but I do think he’s the best of Monksgold’s rivals and at 11/4 BOG is a good backup plan.

4 x 0.5pt doubles as follows:

Mops Angel / Monskgold @ 11.40/1 (3/1 & 21/10 : Betbright)
Mops Angel / Cloud Creeper @ 14/1 (3/1 & 11/4 : Stan James)
Best Tamayuz / Monskgold @ 12.02/1 (16/5 & 21/10 : Betbright)
Best Tamayuz / Cloud Creeper @ 14/1 (3/1 & 11/4 : Boylesports & Hills)