Ballarat Racing Tips for September 30 – Hayes galloper to make bold bid in last of the day

Here are our best bets from the meeting, which is one of the major meeting from around Australia in our midweek tips.

Semantics can kick off her campaign with a win. The Anthony & Sam Freedman-trained filly has had just the one career start, finishing third at Sandown over 1000m back in May behind Divine Dot and Stars Of Dom, with the latter going on to take out the Two-Year-Old Sprint Final at Flemington in July. Semantics went more than seven lengths faster than standard benchmark that day, which is four lengths better than anything else in this race has produced, with another 10 lengths back to the next-best horse, Egyptian Dancer. Semantics comes in with a winning trial under her belt and the daughter of Exceed And Excel draws ideally in barrier three with Ethan Brown to ride.

Jenni You Think should be hard to beat in Race 4. The Ciaron Maher-trained galloper stepped out off a two-month break recently at Sandown and worked hard early over the 1400m in Benchmark 78 company before settling on the speed and sticking on well to finish a half-length third behind Geffina. She went five lengths faster than standard benchmark, which is more than three lengths better than the next-best last-start figure of any runner in this race. She gets back out to 1600m and drops in grade, while she draws ideally in barrier four.

Handee can make the transition to Benchmark 64 company after taking out her maiden at her most recent start. The Jason Warren-trained filly resumed on the Caulfield Heath in maiden grade a fortnight ago and raced away to win by more than two lengths from Swift Star. She had trialled well leading into that and went more than three lengths faster than standard benchmark, which is a better figure than any of these rivals have produced in their careers. With improvement to come at her second run back, the daughter of Hanseatic looks to have a fair bit of upside on her rivals here and I don’t expect her to stay in this grade for too long.

Going with Bold Bordeaux to make it back-to-back wins when he steps out in the final race of the day. The promising four-year-old from the Hayes stable has won two of his four career starts and resumed at Sale on September 13, settling handy before edging to a narrow win ahead of Bold Print. He was unlucky not to win his other two starts, having been held up on both occasions. The son of Brazen Beau rises slightly in grade and carries more weight but gets the run of the race from barrier three and should strip fitter for his second run back, while the likelihood of a good surface is another tick.