Pakenham Preview & Best Bets – Thursday May 18

Adam Cusworth

in Bets of the Day 18 May 2023

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

Pakenham Tips 18/5/1823

BEST BET 🏆 (WIN)

Race 2 No. 3 TRUFFLE FINDER – ($1.75)

Excellent debut by TRUFFLE FINDER on the Synthetic at Pakenham on May 7 and the Clinton McDonald-trained galloper can go one spot better in this race. The son of Lonhro was just a tad keen early on and was four deep on a slow tempo but kept coming in the straight to just miss out behind Shunme. Those two put a solid gap on the rest and Truffle Dancer went 2.3 lengths slower than standard benchmark, which is a better figure than what any other horse in this race has produced. Improvement to come at his second start and with Ben Melham sticking on board, he looks to be the one.

NEXT BEST 🥈 (WIN)

Race 6 No 5 HURRICANE THUNDER – ($2.60)

HURRICANE THUNDER can go on with the job in Race 6. The Team Hawkes-trained galloper has had the three career runs with two of those coming at his current preparation. He was unlucky at his first two starts when placing before heading to Geelong on April 18, settling three deep without cover before nailing King Neptune on the line. Those two put a gap on the rest. The runner-up has since come out and won well at Cranbourne and Hurricane Thunder went two lengths faster than standard benchmark last time, which is nearly six lengths better than the next best last start figures of any runner. Jye McNeil rides and just needs to negotiate the wide barrier.

NEXT BEST 🥈

Race 5 No. 4 PROPRIETARY – ($4)

PROPRIETARY can go close at his first run back from a spell. The Greg Eurell-trained galloper was an all-the-way winner on debut at Mornington over the 1200m late last year, scoring by nearly three lengths. He then had one more run and wasn’t disgraced at BenchMark 70 level when 4th behind Shuffle Dancer at Moonee Valley over the 1500m. The son of Territories has been supported in the early betting for his return and should be able to find the lead from barrier 7.