Wangaratta Racing Tips for August 23 – Chigago Blues to hit back at Wangaratta

Here are our best bets from the meeting, which also feature in our daily selections.

It was a solid debut from Cha Ching King, who finished runner-up over the track and trip on July 31, and the locally trained galloper can go one better in this race. The son of Prague came in off some winning trial form and jumped well, only to be posted wide without cover throughout before being forced even wider on the home turn. Despite the tough run, he stuck on strongly to hold the rest at bay and comes into this with the best last-start benchmark figures of any runner in the field. There should be plenty of scope for improvement at his second start, while the Andrew Dale-trained galloper draws in a similar spot to last time. I expect Logan McNeil to be more positive and find the lead on this occasion, which could make the pair hard to run down at the business end.

Willing to give Chicago Blues another chance in Race 6. The four-year-old has won just one of eight and was ok in BenchMark 66 company at Mildura when resuming over the 1200m before not much went right at Seymour last time when settling handy on a hot tempo before dropping out of it to place 10th. He has handled Soft ground in the past, despite what the record suggests, putting up a solid performance when third up at his past preparation to place 5th in the going at Caulfield in the Group 3 Blue Sapphire (1200m). From barrier 1, the son of Blue Point can conserve energy and sit leaders back, while this is not a particularly strong race. 

This shapes as a winnable race for Compressing. The five-year-old steps up from 1700m to 2000m after producing the fastest last 600m of the race at Geelong on a Soft track on July 31. His record around this distance is better than it reads, highlighted by a win over 2080m at Cranbourne, while another attempt came when outclassed in Group company. The Busuttin/Young-trained galloper drops back from Benchmark 62 grade and is likely to settle towards the rear from the wide barrier. With a genuine tempo up front, he should get his chance to wind up strongly in the closing stages and can collect the chocolates here.