Ballarat Racing Tips for August 9 – Gold set to strike at the each-way quote in Race 5

Here are our best bets from the meeting, which is part of the wider racing coverage of racing in Australia in our Sunday tips.

Cosmic Command can break through in Race 2. The four-year-old is yet to win in four career starts but her best performance came two start ago when resuming on the Ballarat Synthetic, placing an unlucky 3rd behind Baby Blue. She lost ground at the start when hampered then was held up at the 400m before working home well to land two lengths off the winner. She has since had one start for a 6th at Sandown in a race that has rated well with a winner already coming out of it, while she went 0.1 lengths faster than standard, which is a better figure than what any horse in this race has produced. With an ounce of luck finding a spot from the wide barrier, she is right in this at nice odds. 

Winsilence should be hard to beat in Race 3. The Cranbourne based galloper has had two runs this time in with both of those coming at Sale. He settled outside the leader when resuming and stuck on well for 3rd then was posted four-wide no cover over the 1100m last time but again hung in there for 4th, beaten just two lengths. The four-year-old should be ready to peak third up and will be forward in a race that does look to lack a bit of pressure. Expect him to be hard to run down. 

Strike Gold is an each-way player in Race 5. The former Singapore galloper saves his best for the surface and has finished out of the money on the Turf at his past few starts on wet tracks when racing keenly. No such issues four starts ago, which was his most recent on the Synthetic when leading before only going down in the last 100m to place 3rd behind Life Sentence. He drops to the 1000m for just the fourth time in his career but form over the trip is promising and he should find a nice spot in the run from barrier 7.