Bendigo Racing Tips for April 12- Wonder Boy to take out the Bendigo Guineas

We have the best bets picked from across the meeting with a Best Bet and other value selections for Bendigo racetrack.

He’s Handsome shapes as an each-way player in Race 3. The Moody/Coleman galloper has had two runs this time in and was too far back when resuming down the Flemington straight, making up some late ground before heading to Sandown over the 1300m on March 26 and closing off steadily for 5th. The five-year-old produced the fastest last 200m in that race. He comes into this third up and was a winner at his only other career run at this stage, while the son of Hellbent showed plenty of talent in 2023 before a long layoff. He will settle back from the draw but the race might set up nicely for him with a few of these to go forward early on and he is worth plenty of thought. 

Nice first up performance by Sweethearted at Flemington and the promising galloper should be hard to beat second up. At Flemington, the Philip Stokes-trained galloper settled well back in the field of 17 before producing the fastest last 400m to place 6th behind Alabama Lass at Listed level, beaten two lengths. He went 8.2 lengths faster than standard benchmark, which is the best last start figure of any runner, and drops slightly in grade for this. At his last preparation, the son of Brave Smash was a two length improver on benchmark figures at this stage before stringing together wins at Pakenham and Geelong. He might settle a tad closer this time around from barrier 5 and will be hard to hold out at the business end. 

Keen on Tatsumaki in Race 6. Fair effort by the Hayes galloper to win when resuming at Caulfield on March 15 at what was his first run since 2021 and just his fourth overall. He remains unbeaten and led over the 1200m before holding off Heart Of Glass, who has since come out an won. The six-year-old went 11.7 lengths faster than standard, which is seven lenghts better than the next best last start figures of any runner. He can go on with the job in this race and might be destined for bigger and better things. 

Wonder Boy should be hard to beat in the Bendigo Guineas. The Jerome Hunter galloper has not won since making his debut last year but has come close in a number of strong races since then. He was a tad luckless over the 1400m at Flemington when 3rd behind Enxuto two starts ago then lined up in the Group 2 Phar Lap Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on March 15, finishing runner-up behind Lazzura, who is one of the favoured runners in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday. He just needs to find some cover early on from barrier 9 and will be hard to hold out at the business end.