Bunbury Parks Preview & Best Bets – Saturday 09 March 

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

Bunbury Tips 09/03/2024

BEST BET 🏆   

Race 5 No. 4 NERO KING – ($3.50) 

We marked NERO KING as a horse of interest following a recent review from Belmont where Ladqar Ramoly brought him right back to last in a big field. Nero King had jumped away cleanly after drawing the car park and trucked into it strongly as Ramoly attempted a rails hugging ride. He just had nowhere to go for most of the straight when finishing third behind Dennis Choux and Lord Gannicus that day. Drew similarly last start at Pinjarra which had us easing off the trigger with Nero King. Ramoly again asked the horse to come back after beginning well, before this time circling the field. The bird had flown when Premium Girl burst away not long after straightening with Nero King finishing as the eye-catcher into second behind her.

NEXT BEST 🥈   

Race 9 No. 8 DEFENDING – ($6) 

Pearce Racing attempted to resume DEFENDING at Ascot Racecourse back in January. Freshness seemed to get the better of their gelding as he reared and lost the rider as the gates opened. Defending subsequently trialed and looked good against quality opposition prior to being sent back to the races for another go. The Pearce stable removed his Nose Roll in favour of a Browband to help keep the horse’s head down at the start. Defending was fairly away in a fast-run race at Ascot which was dominated by the leader Ran home well along the inside before peaking on his run inside the last 50 or so metres. Jumped okay and settled back in the field second-up at Pinjarra. Travelled well into the run under Luke Campbell who just had nowhere to go into the straight. We got a price about him last time when running third in a strong race, and Defending now gains the services of Chris Parnham on Saturday.

BEST VALUE 💰   

Race 6 No. 5 FILTHY HABITS – ($7) 

We see no reason to jump off the FILTHY HABITS bandwagon. The horse went into the #WABlackbookers file from his brave third-up run over a mile back in January. He’s been a bit of a mouse wheel for trainer Brandon Fiore since, including leading all the way to score over this track and trip two runs back. Fiore had Filthy Habits back slightly in trip last time where he and Lucy nearly stole the show. The pair were claimed shortly before the post to register another close placing. Filthy Habits is very fit and should roll forward to give us a sight once again from that outside draw.