Oakbank Preview & Best Bets – Friday 22 December

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

Oakbank Tips 22/12/2023

BEST BET 🏆   

Race 2 No. 6 SKINDER – ($2.40)

Racing returns to Oakbank for the first time since April of this year. Horses who have prior experience here will be heavily advantaged. This is not a meeting we want to be mucking around too much with and so will happily land on SKINDER as our Best Bet. The David Jolly trained mare is currently trading black figures for Friday’s meeting; however, we do expect her to start well into the red come start time. Skinder comes out of two strong maiden races, including running a close second here on debut over the Easter carnival. Skinder has also been highly impressive in winning both of her jump outs this time in.

NEXT BEST 🥈   

Race 6 No. 1 VALAROC – ($8)

David Jolly goes for the claim of stable apprentice Caitlyn Munro for VALAROC who is a track and distance winner here at Oakbank Racecourse. Hannah Edgley allowed him to stride along freely when we had Valaroc as our Best Bet at Strathalbyn a few starts ago. They led all the way to deny Astromancer and the fast finishing Munster before heading to Gawler third-up. Valaroc was never going to match the blistering pace of subsequent Moonee Valley winner Secret War. He battled on gamely under Edgley to watch Rose Ring gun Secret War down in the shadows of the post. Valaroc never looked comfortable with his first look at a heavy track in town last start. Can bounce back in race that is a long way down in grade on what he’s been racing against.

BEST VALUE 💰   

Race 4 No. 10 FORAOISE – ($17)

Westcoast trainers John Dunn and Krystal Bishop return to Oakbank with FORAOISE who has built a handy record at this track. Foraoise put two wins together back in Port Lincoln around this time last year. She travelled strongly on the bridle as Alana Livesey kept him smothered around midfield the fence off a slow tempo. The speed came from horses moving from the back which saw them shuffled to near last on turning. Foraoise finished strongly once clear to run third in a formline which should stack up here.