Murray Bridge Preview & Best Bets – Saturday 23 December

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

Murray Bridge Tips 23/12/2023 

BEST BET 🏆   

Race 2 No. 6 CROWN MINT – ($5.50)

Experienced campaigner CROWN MINT is racing through a purple patch of form. He’s put two wins together from his past couple of starts and should be suited by the big straight of Gifford Hill. Settled well back as per his usual style before Lachlan Neindorf brought him to the outside on turning. Crown Mint lumped the big weight to race past subsequent winner Call Me Vexatious for an impressive win over 1950 metres. Gordon Richards & Damien Moyle found a claim when Crown Mint got in under the minimum for Ben Price at his next start. There was no real tempo in the small field as the pair raced away for another big win over the mile. Comes up against #SABlackbookers galloper Apache Star who will want to be bowling along on Saturday.

NEXT BEST 🥈   

Race 5 No. 7 ROCKSTAR MEGGSY – ($2.80)

Trainer Jon O’Connor removed the blinkers from ROCKSTAR MEGGSY who put herself into a more forward position during a recent barrier trial. She drew poorly for her first-up assignment over 1000 metres on the Parks track. Jason Holder eventually managed to find cover towards the rear of the field before peeling as the widest on straightening. Rockstar Meggsy rattled home along the outer part of the track to miss out in a photo. They ran quickly through the early part while also running home with a sharp last 600 metres. Rockstar Meggsy had been tested out to stronger grades in previous preps and is lightly rated enough to come through her benchmarks.

BEST VALUE 💰   

Race 8 No. 3 HONGBAO – ($13)

Trainer David Jolly will have prepared HONGBAO for his second-up assignment with the horse taking little harm from a first-up run. The strong BM68 field rated as beyond a BM72 as Hongbao resumed over 1000 metres on Murray Bridge Gold Cup Day.  They just walked throughout this event with Hongbao finding himself back to last the fence when the field turned for home. Hannah Edgley kept a firm grip on the horse with her path blocked for the entirety of the straight. This was a complete forgive run from a race that we are otherwise not going to follow out of due to the way it was run. We can isolate Hongbao from this based on his form from last prep while knowing he had an easy time of it first-up. Hongbao is an #SABlackbookers runner who pulled up with respiratory issues at his next start in Bendigo.