Welcome to our horse racing preview and betting tips for racing on Sunday, December 29th.
A big day of racing takes place this Sunday, with seven meetings across Australia. Our focus turns to the racing at Murwillumbah, Mornington and the Sunshine Coast, where Luke Krahe has provided his best bets for each track!
Find his preview and selections below!
Horse Racing Tips: Sunday, December 29th
Murwillumbah Race 3 (Market)
There doesn’t appear to be much speed on paper in this, the visiting Queenslander (10) Legs Unbarred looks the leader but doubt she is up to this at her age. (3) Jeopardise Me will start near the top of the betting but looks a great risk. She was a last start winner here at her home track she was very heavily backed and circled them from last to run over the top. I just can’t see the same pressure being applied today up front and don’t think that those back in the field will get into the race until very late, if at all. That leaves me with another last start winner here at the track, (2) Tycoon Rossa. He has won two of his last five runs, drawn well in two he should be able to use his tactical speed to have the advantage early over his main dangers. If they have done their homework, they will see the lack of speed and may even try to lead. He doesn’t have to in my opinion, sitting outside the leader should be good enough to control the tempo and kick clear at the top of the straight.
Murwillumbah Race 7 (Market)
The prelude to the Ballina Cup is the feature of the card, (6) Saxton Rock has a very consistent record this time in. He has 2 wins and 2 placings from his last 5 runs, the only time he hasn’t cashed a cheque is last start at Eagle Farm, but it may have been the best performance. He began well over the mile, settled second but was forced to be the pursuer of a runaway leader. He was still 6 lengths back from the leader approaching the turn, improved quickly and took the lead before the furlong pole. He was swamped late and eventually ran fifth but was only beaten just over a length. It was a great effort after being forced to take the field up to the leader, he should be taking the role of front-runner today and be very hard to run down at his home track.
Mornington Race 2 (Market)
(2) Firefight has been to the races once in his career, back in the winter on the synthetic track at Pakenham. He was well supported late and started under each-way odds, sat up on the speed but faded badly and was most disappointing. He was sent straight to the paddock. He has had two jump-outs in preparation for this, the latest at Flemington was impressive and shows that he has come along nicely. He jumped well enough, cruised up outside the lead and when asked over the last 50m showed that he still had plenty up his sleeve. Admittedly most of them did and the time was not the best by far, but that little acceleration at the back-end was encouraging. The video of the jump-out (heat 10) can be found here. He gets a very winnable race to resume in and should be on the speed for a long way. He did miss a run at Wangarattta last week when they were called off, but we will stick with him.
Sunshine Coast Race 7 (Market)
He doesn’t win out of turn (1) Natural Force, but he is so consistent. He looks well enough in at the 58kg, he carried a similar weight in a Class 3 at the Gold Coast last start. He was slowly away, worse than mid-field in the run before angling wide and running on hard. Although he never looked the winner it was a nice effort from the back, a horse that he narrowly beat home that day has come out and won since. He usually needs everything to go right but from the good draw, hopefully Dan Griffin can settle closer and he will be too strong up the long straight.
