Pakenham Preview & Best Bets – Thursday April 13

Adam Cusworth

in Bets of the Day 12 Apr 2023

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

Pakenham Tips 13/4/2023

BEST BET 🏆 (WIN)

Race 2 No. 5 HURRICANE THUNDER- ($2.40)

HURRICANE THUNDER should be hard to beat in Race 2. The Team Hawkes-trained galloper has had the two career starts, finishing 3rd on both occasions. Her debut came at Sale last year and she was unlucky over the 1100m when 3rd behind Our Shandy, going 2.8 lengths slower than standard. The daughter of Russian Revolution resumed at Geelong on March 24 and was posted wide over the 1140m before sticking on well behind Russian Front, going 3.6 lengths slower than standard. She has produced better benchmark figures than any other runner in both of her races. With any improvement to come at her second run back, she should be very hard to beat.

NEXT BEST 🥈 (WIN)

Race 8 No.3 GOTTABESAVVY- ($3.50)

GOTTABESAVVY can go close in the final race of the evening. The Busuttin/Young galloper shows a bit of promise and was 3rd when resuming at Pakenham over the 1400 on March 23, producing the fastest last 200m behind Oceans Above. He was held up badly from the 500m until just after the 200m that night. Step up to the 1600m suits and tempo looks ok here so I expect to see him launch at them late with Craig Newitt on board.

BEST VALUE 💰(EACH-WAY)

Race 5 No. 2 WAY TO GO PAULA – ($7)

WAY TO GO PAULA can be a bit of an improver at her second run back from a spell. The Philip Stokes mare didn’t do much when resuming with an 8th of nine runners in a Benchmark 70 at Sandown on March 22 but was back on a very slow tempo. She looked to be working into it, producing the second fastest 400m-200m split, before the lack of tempo and her own race fitness counted against. She drops in grade for this and at her second run of her last preparation, the five-year-old improved eight lengths on benchmark figures when placing on the Pakenham Synthetic. She saves ground from barrier 2 for this and gets the 1.5kg claim for Sheridan Clarke, who strikes at 19% for the stable from 84 rides, providing a 4% profit on turnover.