Welcome to our horse racing preview and betting tips for racing on Thursday, September 17th.
There's a total of five meetings across Australia on Thursday and Tim Geers is keen to bet far and wide! He's picked out his best bets at Kembla Grange, Echuca, Northam and Townsville in his preview below!
Horse Racing Tips: Thursday, September 17th
Kembla Grange Race 1 (Market)
Two horses I’ll be with to start the day at Kembla. Interested in (3) Unamerican for the Freedman stable here, which is their only runner of the day. He’s first up from a spell with two trials at Rosehill under the belt. He’ll get over more ground than this but is capable at this distance. Rachel King takes the ride and jumps off one of the favourites to do so. I think $7.00 is a good bet. Of the favourites, I’ll lean to (2) Highmaster who ran 2nd to Bucharest first up at Newcastle after trialling well on two occasions. As mentioned, Rachel King rode him first up but jumps off today to ride Unamerican. Highmaster’s sole career win came here at Kembla and from the good draw, he should be hard to beat. At $7.00 and $2.50, we can back both, but I expect Unamerican to start shorter and Highmaster to drift, so I’ll take the price for Unamerican now and wait until closer to the jump for Highmaster.
Also backing: (2) Highmaster $2.50
Echuca Race 3 (Market)
(11) Grandma Gail was a late one to debut given she is a five-year-old mare, but her first run at Warrnambool was a good one behind the very promising Tydeus, who has since come out and won in town. That looks a really solid form line. She was slow away out of the gates and came from well-back, and even though she was beaten 3.5, she put 2L on the third horse. The big query is the fact that was heavy ground and today she races on a good track. She draws wide so may have to come from back in the field again, but she comes up against plenty of exposed horses so hopefully she can go one better at her second attempt.
Northam Race 1 (Market)
Going to take on the early odds-on favourite here and side with the second favourite (5) Amelia’s Etoile. She’s run 2nd in two trials at Belmont leading into her debut today. This stable don’t bring them to Northam to make up the numbers and this is their only runner of the day. Shaun McGruddy comes for just the one ride, they’ve drawn well in barrier 2 and I think at the price she’s the way to go. Look to have a saver on (6) Le Choix for the Pearce/Azzopardi combination.
(5) Amelia's Etoile
$2.40
Townsville Race 4 (Market)
(4) Unshakeable put two wins together here at Townsville before finishing midfield last start. Interestingly, he drops back to 1200m today after racing over 1600m and 1400m, but he’s had four weeks between runs and he also has a good record at this track and distance. He drew wide and was ridden by a different jockey last start, but he gets a better draw today and regular rider Brad Pengelly gets back aboard. Trainer Bill Kenning has about a 34% strike rate here at Townsville, so expect him to go very close.
