After a fill up last night at Gloucester Park, harness racing expert Trent Orwin is back for his Saturday night harness racing preview with his best bets coming to us from Albion Park and Melton.
Albion Park Harness Tips
RACE 1
Chapter One will appreciate dropping back to the 1660m which is where he does his best racing. He was placed three starts ago over the sprint trip after beginning from barrier six. Go back five starts and Chapter One was runner up from barrier six when leading and beaten 3m by Franco Totem.
Trista Dixon should use his gate speed in an attempt to cross and if he can find the pegs, he will take plenty of catching in this C4+ event. It is a drop in class from recent C7-C12 and C7+ races that he has contested.
RACE 10
Miss Kenny looks the leader from barrier three following the scratching of Nerio. She is first up from a spell and if you look at her numerical form then you wouldn’t be overly impressed. However, she was a Menangle runner up three starts ago in 1:53.0. She was in excellent form back in August and September with three wins from four starts at Redcliffe and Albion Park (twice).
Zaras Delight looks a big danger and was almost my tip in the race, but I would rather be on the leader over the short distance than a horse that may have to come three-wide late. Most of the runners in this race are capable of winning if they get the right run apart from Sache Girl or Goodtime Stride who are probably against it in this race.
Melton Harness Tips
RACE 6
Inter Dominion Trotting champion Tornado Valley was listed as the $1.55 favourite to capture the Group 1 Great Southern Star (2760m), however Tornado Valley has been scratched overnight, which leaves the Ken Ford-trained six-year-old entire Marcoola as the odds-on favourite.
Marcoola has an excellent record with 33 career starts producing 15 wins and just shy of $500,000 in stakes. Three starts ago he won the Group 1 Dominion Trot (3200m) by four lengths – he was too good for the likes of Kyvalley Blur and Speeding Spur who also line up in the Great Southern Star.
RACE 8
A cracking edition of the Group 1 4YO Bonanza (1720m) will be run with Shepparton Cup winner Im Pats Delight a narrow favourite over Spankem. Throw in NSW Derby winner Poster Boy and Ballarat Pacing Cup runner up Rackemup Tigerpie and this is a heavyweight clash.
I don’t know how forward Poster Boy will be for this race with the Chariots of Fire looming so happy to watch him first up. Im Pats Delight is short enough in the market and Spankem looks about the right price from the wide draw. The horse that keeps popping up when I assess the race is Rackemup Tigerpie. The four-year-old gelding was enormous in defeat in the Ballarat Pacing Cup. He sat outside of Cruz Bromac and still managed to beat him home with Thefixer running down the leading pair. The barrier looks really tricky here but $12 about a horse in very good form is worthy of a wager.
