Cranbourne Preview & Best Bets – Friday May 12

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

Cranbourne Tips 12/5/2023

BEST BET 🏆 (WIN)  

Race 7 No. 2 POWERFUL EAGLE- ($2.70)

POWERFUL EAGLE has had a bit of a stop-start campaign and has been scratched from recent meetings but all going well for the Peter Moody-trained galloper he should be hard to beat in Race 7. He enjoys a bit of a class edge here and narrowly missed when resuming on March 15 at Sandown before leading and running 4th behind Gringotts at his most recent start. That came at Sandown and the form out of that race has been rock solid. 

NEXT BEST 🥈 (WIN) 

Race 2 No 6 KUROSHINZO – ($4.40)

Solid debut effort by KUROSHINZO at Sale on April 23 and the Luke Oliver-trained galloper can go close at his second career start. At Sale, the three-year-old attracted late support in the betting and settled midfield before closing off solidly with not much room to work with late in the piece. He landed just over one length behind the winner and went 3.1 lengths slower than standard. That is above the class average for this race and two lengths better than the next best last start benchmark figures of any runner. With improvement to come, we can expect him to fight out the finish. 

BEST VALUE 💰(EACH-WAY)

Race 6 No.4 THEMOONLITEGAMBLER- ($7.50)

THEMOONLITEGAMBLER is worth thought in Race 6. The stayer from the John McArdle camp gets out to the 2500m and will no doubt improve off his first two runs this preparation. At his most recent start, the six-year-old stepped out at Mornington in a BenchMark 78 over the 2000m, settling back before running 8th behind Convener. He drops slightly in grade and at his last preparation he thrived when getting out to 2500m. The likelihood of a Soft-Heavy track is a bonus and he should just about be ready at his third run.