Benalla Preview & Best Bets – 20/02/2024

Our form expert provides tips for today’s Benalla horse racing at Benalla Racecourse and gives his best bets.    

Benalla Tips 20/02/2024

BEST BET 🏆   

Race 1 No. 13 MISS WINSLET ($2.60) 

MISS WINSLET can open up with a win. The Leon & Troy Corstens-trained galloper has had the three career starts and showed improvement at Moonee Valley on February 2 when finishing runner-up behind Dark Journey over the 1200m. She settled on the speed that night and stuck on well behind a horse that since performed well in a BenchMark 64. Decent gap back to 3rd in the Valley race. The daughter of Shamus Award draws barrier 3 and looks ready. 

NEXT BEST 🥈   

Race 3 No. 9 CO CO VAN WINKLE ($3.40) 

This might be the one for CO CO VAN WINKLE to finally break through. The four-year-old has placed in four of her eight career starts and resumed with a solid performance at Geelong when a narrow runner-up behind Balabushka. She drew wide and worked up in a strongly run affair before sticking on. The Team Hayes-trained galloper should have improvement to come at her second run back and gets her chance. 

NEXT BEST 🥈   

Race 8 No. 14 ROCKABILLY REBEL ($4.20) 

ROCKABILLY REBEL just needs to overcome the wide barrier to be a threat in Race 8. The three-year-old has had the one run since switching to the Patrick Payne stables with that coming at Sandown in a BenchMark 64 over the 1200m on February 7. She was posted wide without cover in that race but stuck on fairly for 6th, beaten three lengths by Robrick. The daughter of Street Boss comes into this at her third run and was a winner at this stage of her last preparation before performing well at Rosehill. 

BEST VALUE 💰   

Race 9 No.15 ZAKU ($10.20) 

Hoping the first emergency, ZAKU, can sneak into the field in the final race of the day. He was no match for Rise At Dawn at Pakenham when resuming on January 25 before heading to Sandown and sticking on well for 4th behind Aiming over the 1600m. The four-year-old went 5.5 lengths faster than standard benchmark that day, which is nearly eight lengths better than the next best last start figures of any other runner and the best that any horse in this race has produced. He comes into this third up and gets the 2kg claim for Dakotah Keane.