Alice Springs Preview & Best Bets - Friday August 26
Pakenham Preview & Best Bets – Saturday August 26
Our form expert provides Pakenham tips for today’s horse racing at Pakenham Racecourse and gives his best bets.
Pakenham Tips 26/08/2022
BEST BET 🏆
Race 9 No. 2 CUBAN STATE – ($6.50)
CUBAN STATE can go on with the job after scoring on the Ballarat Synthetic on August 9. That came over the 1500m and he settled on the speed before showing plenty of tenacity in the straight to hang on from Mio Sorrento. He was runner-up at Ballarat prior to that and comes in third up. At his last campaign, the Tony & Calvin McEvoy-trained galloper improved 10 lengths on benchmark figures at this stage to set a personal best by going 6.9 lengths faster than standard when runner-up at Morphettville. Celine Gaudry takes the 1.5kg claim and is four from 12 for the stable, providing a 24% profit on turnover for punters.
NEXT BEST 🥈
Race 7 No. 6 MEVIUS – ($6.50)
Can MEVIUS make it four wins on the trot? No reason to suggest not for the five-year-old who saves his best for Synthetic tracks, winning four of six. The past two have been at Ballarat, while he was a winner over the 2200m here three starts ago. He tackles BenchMark 70 for the first time but comes in with the best last start benchmark figures of any runner and will look to take a sit from barrier 1 with Daniel Stackhouse to ride.
BEST VALUE 💰(EACH-WAY)
Race 5 No. 6 GWITHIAN BAY – ($11)
Keen to have something on GWITHIAN BAY in Race 5 at Pakenham. The Mike Moroney-trained galloper has had two runs since coming over from New Zealand and was 5th at Geelong on July 1 when fresh before heading to Sandown and running 7th behind Magic Chloe over the 1300m, beaten just over three lengths. She settled back on a solid tempo that day before producing the fastest 400m-200m and sticking on ok. The daughter of Iffraaj went 3.7 lengths faster than standard benchmark, which is better than what any horse in this race has produced. The extra 100m is in her favour and if she can handle the synthetic she should go close.
