Feature Victorian racing returns to Sandown this Saturday as winter racing continues to roll on.
While punters wait with immense anticipation for another year of Spring racing, there is still plenty of value on offer over these quieter months.
The feature race of the Sandown program comes up quite early with a Benchmark-100 in race 5, which sees returning 5yo mare from the Peter Moody stable ‘Dance To Dubai’ currently the $2.70 favourite.
Unlike last week, there are a few short favourites that should ensure the punters keep their accounts ticking over between the races at Eagle Farm.
The Sandown Hillside track is currently rated as a Heavy 8 but with fine weather forecast on Friday and Saturday, the track will get into Soft 6 or 7 range.
The running rail is out 5m the entire circuit which should slightly favour horses up on-pace or midfield from middle barriers.
After going two for two last week, there is good reason to get keen about this week’s two at very healthy odds!
This 4YO Snitzel mare put in a solid run first-up when 4th behind ‘Party For One’ who has gone on to win again.
She did not have a lot of luck in that race when and did not get a clear run until the 200m mark.
By that stage, the swoopers had their momentum up and were off and gone.
Prior to that fresh run, she had one of the better jumpouts you will see giving confidence she is in great shape this preparation.
She comes into this second-up (2:2-0-0) and will appreciate a bit of sting out of the track with her last win coming on a Heavy 9.
She draws the sweet spot here in barrier 7 when the rail is out 5m and gets weight relief with apprentice Luke Campbell claiming 2kg to bring her down to a manageable 58.5kg.
Trainers Maher/Eustace have a solid 17.5% winning strike rate at Sandown Hillside and also have had 15 winners from their past 100 runners.
She will appreciate the drop in class and with the likelihood she gets all the favours from the good draw, prove extremely hard to beat this time around.
Look for her to continue that excellent second-up record.
We have seen this movie before with this 6yo Gelding from the Ben & JD Hayes stable.
An average run fresh and then bouncing back to win second-up at this sort of distance range at double figures. This is something he has done twice in his last two preparations.
Last campaign when second-up, he was an excellent winner knocking off the likes of ‘Hezashocker’, ‘Great House’, ‘Young Werther’ and ‘Persan’ to name a few over the 1700m at Flemington at $19.00.
Furthermore, his overall record second-up is top notch (5:3-1-0) and has two wins from three when in this class.
Ben & JD Hayes are in solid form with 19 winners from their last 100 runners and will look to continue that with this import at handy odds.
Head to our horse racing tip market to access the selections of proving winning form analysts.