Bendigo Tips March 30 – 3 best bets for Golden Mile Day

Saturday Metro racing is at Bendigo, with the running of the Listed Golden Mile (1600m) and the Listed Bendigo Guineas (1600m). It looks a deep program and we’ve found three races to bet into. 
Race 3 – 1:30pm Avenue Press VOBIS Gold Rush (1000m)I’m willing to see the Matt Laurie-trained PRINCE OF SUSSEX another chance off his debut performance at Pakenham. I blackbooked him from the trials before his debut run and said “Matt Laurie might have a pretty special horse on his hands”. The early shoppers through so too, as he was $5.50 into $2.20 and travelled like he was going to put a space on them but just didn’t let down under race conditions. He has trialled well since and I can be forgiving of his run. That Pakenham maiden wasn’t the worst, as Whykayoh who ran second in the race, was only a neck away from La Tene at Sandown, that horse went onto win the Group 2 VRC Sires’ Produce, so that form can be tied in easily. The TAB went up $13 in early markets and that was simply the wrong price. He is reaching near his right mark at around $6.50 now. I think the danger in the race is the Tony McEvoy-trained Sisstar. A sister to Sunlight, the two-year-old filly trialled very well at Cranbourne on March 4 and went to the line with Done By Me, who has since won a listed race at Morphettville.

Race 4 – 2:10pm Mitchelton Winery BM84 Handicap (1100m)Formally with Ellerton & Zahra and now with Craig Widdison, five-year-old mare CREATIVITY looks very well placed here first-up. She is a mare that flies fresh, her last first-up run off a 133 day break she bolted in an open handicap at Caulfield, defeating Divine Quality. That mare won like Winx in a Group 3 down the Flemington straight, defeating Group One Oakleigh Plate winner Booker. I went searching far and wide for a trial and jumpout and finally found a jumpout from her on March 7. I hand timed the jumpout and she ran 900m in 55.18s and she looked to work stylishly, under a strong hold whilst the other horses behind her were under the whip. Her last start effort of 10.2 lengths above the all benchmark is more than five-lengths better than any last start performance in the race. D.Thornton off and L.Meech on is a big positive and from barrier 11, I’d assume she will roll forward and try and lead. I’m very confident she runs a bold race at $5.50 which looks a very nice price. 
Race 7 – 4:10pm bet365 Official Price Guarantee Golden Mile (1600m)The feature race of the day is the Golden Mile and I’m looking away from the favourites with my two-bet strategy. The first of the two horses i the ex-Weir galloper PLEIN CIEL who is now in the Anthony Freedman yard. The blinkers went on first-up and I was on him, in hindsight the 1400m was always going to be a little too sharp for him, even off his outstanding Cranbourne trial over 1190m. That 1400m race at Flemington was a building tempo, which gives him a nice fitness base without running the risk of him racing flat second-up. Mentioning his second-up record, he has four second-up runs for three wins and one placing. M.Zahra to D.Holland is a negative jockey change but with most of the better riders in Sydney, I’m not putting too much weight into that change. The other runner I want to back is the Chris Waller-trained HARIPOUR. This horse is also ex-Weir and comes out of the same race that Plein Ciel competed in first-up at Flemington. Although he wasn’t visually impressive, running eighth, I thought there was plenty of merit to the run. He really built into his work, running the seventh-fastest 400m-200m split of the race and the fourth-fastest 200m of the race, which was also the 12th-fastest last 200m of the meeting. We might be going off a start too early with Haripour, as his best form is over 2000m but off that first-up run that might be ridden slightly as it wasn’t a typical ‘flashing light’ run, I think we’re getting a nice price to find out.