Randwick Preview & Best Bets – 09/03/2024

Randwick Tips for Saturday, March 9

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

BEST BET 🏆

Race 6:  No.1  PRIVATE EYE 

Joe Pride saddles-up PRIVATE EYE here and second-up, looks the testing material for this contest. Last start, the Al Maher was fresh off a 15-week spell when he pushed Imperatriz to the absolute limit, finishing a close-up second to the NZ champ in the Group 1 Lightning Stakes over 1000m at Flemington. Back to Sydney now and Nash Rawiller jumps back on board for this assignment (having already ridden him to victory in the Group 2 Shorts, here four starts back. His resume shows he is a two-time winner when second-up and a three-time winner on the track as well. Fitter for that first-up run, he will take beating here.

NEXT BEST 🥈

Race 5:  No.6  SWITZERLAND

Unbeaten in two starts, the Chris Waller-trained SWITZERLAND faces his toughest task to date but in top-shelf form, he looks set to handle the 1200m here and ticks all other boxes to suggest he will be hard to beat here. Last start, the Snitzel colt showed he was on target for the up-coming Golden Slipper (and a date against Storm Boy) when he proved too strong for them in the Coolmore Pierro Plate, here over 1100m. James McDonald used hands and heels only as he steered the colt across the line, one length clear in the end. He has a smart one here (Straight Charge) to run down but will strip even fitter here and has plenty of upside. He can finish in front of these.

BEST VALUE 💰 

Race 8:  No.9  CEOLWULF 

If there was an upset on the cards here, it could come from the Joe Pride-trained CEOLWULF who caught our eye in his first-up effort in the Group 2 Hobartville Stakes last start. Fresh off a nine-week break, the Tavistock colt was always well back and caught wide to the turn, but in the run home, passed enough of them to be noticed, doing his best work over the final 100m. He gets all the favours here from gate one and has Sam Clipperton sticking with him for this assignment. A winner when second-up last preparation, if he a suitable pace up front, he could easily give this a real fright at big odds.