Pakenham Preview & Best Bets – Thursday July 20

Adam Cusworth

in Bets of the Day 19 Jul 2023

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

Pakenham Tips 20/7/2023

BEST BET 🏆 (WIN)

Race 1 No. 5 CONFRONTATIONAL – ($3.80)

CONFRONTATIONAL can go close in the opener at Pakenham. The consistent performer from the Jason Warren yard was solid in two runs on the Synthetic over the 1600m before rising to the 2000m at Caulfield and running 3rd behind Thorin at a recent Saturday meeting. He settled handy on a solid tempo and stuck on well. The five-year-old comes back to the Synthetic and this time he gets over the longer trip, which should be right up his alley. Draws perfectly in barrier 2 and will take some beating at the business end.

NEXT BEST 🥈 (WIN)

Race 6 No 10 EXPLOSIVE ROSIE- ($4.55)

Nice win by EXPLOSIVE ROSIE when resuming on July 3 and the three-year-old can measure up to Class 1 level. In her recent run, the John Sadler-trained galloper settled handy before drawing clear to win by just under four lengths from Jalpido. She went 1.6 lengths slower than standard benchmark, which is three lengths better than the next best last start figures of any runner. At her initial preparation she was a seven length improver on figures when second up. Expect her to go close here.

NEXT BEST 🥈

Race 7 No. 5 KAPANKU – ($5.30)

KAPANKU can go one spot better than a last start effort that saw her finish runner-up at over the 1200m here on July 3. The mare from the Philip Stokes stable loves the surface and was brave at her latest when posted wide before hitting the lead a fraction early. Drop back to the 1000m suits and the daughter of Star Turn has the early speed to overcome barrier 10.