Pakenham Preview & Best Bets – 25/01/2024

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

Pakenham Tips 25/01/2024

BEST BET 🏆   

Race 2 No. 5 JOON HO  ($2.20) 

JOON HO can break through for a win in Race 2 of the evening. The four-year-old has placed in all five of his career starts with two of those coming at his current preparation. He looked the winner first up at Bendigo over the 1100m before being run down late by Yongtai, with those too putting a gap on the rest. It was a similar tale at his last start at Mornington over the 1200m. The Tony Noonan-trained galloper comes into this third up and should be right at his peak. He can box seat from the inside barrier. 

NEXT BEST 🥈   

Race 4 No. 1  KEITEL  ($4) 

Plenty of interest in Race 4 with the unbeaten KEITEL resuming from a spell. The Price/Kent Jnr galloper has won two from two. The include a debut win on the Synthetic by four lengths back in 2022 before stepping out in January last year for a strong win ahead of Immortal Spirit. Big break in between runs and the late market will be the best guide but the son of Hellbent clearly has talent. 

NEXT BEST 🥈   

Race 6 No. 1 HELLFIRE ($3.55) 

Nice first-up effort by HELLFIRE and the four-year-old can go one spot better after narrowly missing behind Morryl Moral over the 1400m. In the January 14 race, the Nikki Burke-trained galloper settled back and looked the winner at the business end before going down in a tight one. He produced the fastest 400m-200m split before just peaking late but will take improvement off that run and went 0.2 lengths faster than standard benchmark, which is 2.5 lengths better than the next best last start figures of any runner.