31/8/19 Belmont best bets and tips 31/8/19

Safe to say last Saturday was a bit of a nightmare.

My best bet Shinju was beaten into fourth and just as I thought our luck would turn, Snowchino was done in the shadows of the post.

The beauty of this game is that when you are up, there is inevitably something around the corner to test your resolve and bring you down a peg or two.

It's what you do next that counts.

And so that brings me to my next preview and it's one that looks pretty grim weather-wise.

Up to 35mm of rain is forecasted to fall in Perth in the lead up to Saturday afternoon, which will see the Belmont track start in the Heavy range. 

The rail is back to the true position, which is very welcome after the leader bias evident last Saturday. Every single winner on the day was drawn in barrier 5 or lower. 

With the rail in the true, the track should play much more evenly on Saturday. If not, I might be eating two minute noodles for a second successive week!

Free racing tips from Mike Johnson

You can access all of Mike's tips for Saturday's racing on his tips page here.

Belmont Race 3 Tip #4 Citichant $4.80

Citichant was very game last time out, going down to the Night Voyage over 1000m.  

The War Chant mare was settled on speed that day and caught in a pocket until the 200m mark. Once she got out, she absolutely flew home. 

Draws in barrier two again here, she looks well suited and gets Lisa Staples to ride who has been aboard for three of her four wins. 

Look for Staples to roll forward and with a great record at the distance (15-4-4-2), they'll be right in the finish.

Belmont Race 4 Tip #6 Stageman $2.60

Stageman resumes after a 46-day freshen.

The gelding was last seen in the middle of Winter, in a campaign which saw him defeat the talented Free Trade twice. 

His last start win carrying 60kg was incredible. He set about reeling in Free Trade who had 4kg on this bloke, but 'The Wizard' turned in a superb chase over the 1200m at Belmont. 

With a record of (3:2-0-1) over the 1000m, dropping back 200m here poses no concern.

He drops 1.5kg stepping up in grade, he gets Pike to ride and will get last crack at them. 

Drawn barrier eight, Pike will sit at the back of the field and looks likely to track Floyd into the race. 

If the track is playing fair, he'll be well positioned to fly down the middle of the straight and prove hard to beat.