Best Bet: Ballarat Race 1 – Lighthouse $2.05
This lightly raced 5yo mare has had four wins from 10 starts and is one from one in Australia having made the move to the Maher/Eustace stable from the USA. Her only run came on a Heavy 8 at Kyneton over 1206m where she won easily, pulling away in the straight to win by 4 lengths.
On her new home track at Ballarat she’ll be challenged by Kurabui but will relish the extra distance moving up to the 1400.
Ballarat Cup: Skyman $8
Skyman has finished 2nd in three consecutive starts including most recently the Furphy Plate on Melbourne Cup day where he went round as the second favourite and lost by half a length. Obvious questions will be around the fact he hasn’t won since April, but the 6yo gelding doesn’t often run a bad race and you’re likely to be in the mix despite not having much history on wet tracks. You should be able to get nice enough odds to make it an Each Way proposition, but could well get backed in as the race gets closer.
The Gong: Criaderas $16
The $1m feature at Kembla Grange is a tricky affair with Count De Rupee drifting in the market to $3.95 at the time of writing after being under $3 before the barrier draw. I have to be looking for something rough here in a big field, and that leads me to Criaderas. Settled 12 lengths back in his last run at Randwick in October before flying home with the best last 200m of the race. Given that, he should relish the extra 200m but jumping from the wide barrier is likely to be at the back and needing a very fast finish to run over the top of them. Definitely another EW play for me.
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