Canterbury Preview & Best Bets – Friday February 17
Canterbury Tips 17/02/2023
Our form expert provides Canterbury tips for tonight’s horse racing at Canterbury Racecourse and gives his best bets.
BEST BET 🏆
Race 7: No.6 GIRL MANIA $4.50 with Ladbrokes)
Goulburn galloper GIRL MANIA is now three starts into this preparation and looks well placed here where she is yet to miss a podium finish. Last start, the Capitalist mare was third-up when she took home third prize in a BM72 Hcp, here over 1100m. She ran the trip out, 4.8 lengths quicker than benchmark, the best in this line-up by more than 4 lengths. Andrew Adkins has his second ride on the mare tonight and although drawn wide, she will settle back in the field anyway. Placed twice in two starts at the track and distance already, she will strip even fitter here and the forecast Soft 6 looks ideal as she does her best work with the sting out of the ground. Boasting five top-three finishes from seven starts on wet tracks, she looks set to bring up win number three tonight.
NEXT BEST 🥈
Race 5: No.3 FOR VALOUR ($3.30 with TAB)
The Waterhouse & Bott-trained FOR VALOUR is three starts into this preparation and now looks ready to win. Last start, the Zoustar gelding showed even further improvement when he beat all but one home in a BM78 Hcp over 1350m at Rosehill. Trying to lead all the way, he gave them plenty to catch but was grabbed on the line by a swooper, leaving him with second prize to take home. He ran his last 600m, 5.6 lengths quicker than benchmark, the best here by more than 2 lengths. Tonight, he steps-up to his ‘pet distance’ where he is already a four-time winner. Drawn the fence here, he should have little trouble finding the front from there and at his peak after three runs back, he will take catching tonight.
BEST VALUE 💰
Race 4: No.4 BLACK DUKE ($10 with bet365)
Warwick Farm galloper BLACK DUKE is a track specialist here second-up tonight, ticks enough boxes to stake a solid claim for victory here. Last start, the Fiorente gelding was having his first start for the Con Karakatsanis stable and resuming from a 12-week spell when he finished third in a BM72 Hcp on Randwick’s Kensington track. Jay Ford was aboard that day and despite losing his whip, he still managed to finish on the podium that day. He ran his last 600m, 5.5 lengths quicker than benchmark, the best last-start effort here by more then 3 lengths. He gets the gun-run from gate one tonight and has Ford sticking with him. Already a winner when second-up and a winner here over the 1100m, he goes to the gates at super odds and looks well worth an each-way ticket here.