Pakenham Racing Tips for November 13 – Each-Way chance is a tasty option in Race 7

Here are our best bets from the meeting, which follows the Geelong meeting earlier on Friday.

This might be the one for Mongolian Hero to break through for the first win of his career. The Peter Gelagotis-trained galloper is yet to place in three career starts but hasn't been far away, finishing fourth in both runs this preparation. He closed off with the fastest final 200m when resuming over 1200m at Moe, despite being held up for a large portion of the straight, with the runner-up from that race subsequently breaking through by five lengths. The son of Ghaiyyath stuck to the 1200m at Pakenham most recently and was again held up, losing momentum when attempting to work into the race before eventually finishing a length from the winner. The rise to 1400m looks ideal, Jamie Melham takes the ride and he should settle within striking distance from barrier six before challenging late.

Going with Smart Step in Race 3 following an encouraging debut at Moe last month. The Clinton McDonald-trained gelding was a touch slow out of the gates and settled worse than midfield in a race where they went slowly through the early stages. He worked into the contest with the fastest 600m to 400m split, wobbled around the home turn and then closed off strongly over the final 200m to finish fourth. The son of Rubick has trialled well leading into this assignment and gets the blinkers on for the first time. He draws perfectly in barrier four and should be able to settle closer to the speed. Beau Mertens takes the ride and strikes at just under 20% for the stable. Smart Step looks a strong winning chance.

Yum is worth an each-way play in Race 7. The John McArdle-trained mare has had two runs this preparation, encountering traffic problems when resuming over 1200m at Mornington before finishing fourth in Benchmark 70 company on Geelong Cup Day, where she again had a couple of excuses. She produced a performance 2.5 lengths faster than standard benchmark figures on that occasion, the second-best last-start rating of any runner in this field behind Deliberate Ploy, who resumes from a lengthy spell. Yum should be approaching peak fitness third-up, having improved her benchmark figures by more than four lengths at the same stage of her previous campaign when stepping out in Saturday grade at Flemington. She also won at Listed level at Caulfield when third-up during the preparation before that. This is the easiest race she has contested for some time, and it's interesting that the stable has elected to stick to 1200m. She draws wide and may need to settle back, but with any luck in running, she can challenge them late.