Eagle Farm - betting tips for a tough track

It promised to be Australia's premier, world class racing surface when it re-opened last June, but less than 12 months down the track Eagle Farm racecourse has lost the confidence of trainers, jockeys and punters alike.

With some of Australia's top thoroughbred talent contesting more than $1.8 million in prize money this Saturday at the embattled track, Brisbane Racing Club will be crossing fingers, toes and arms, in the hope that remedial measures taken since late April have come some way to ease the terminal problems with its surface.

On June 10 2016, a day before Eagle Farm held it's first meeting on the newly laid surface, top Queensland jockey Jim Byrne shared concerns about the ability of the surface to handle the traffic it was due to receive, before saying he had confidence it would improve over the short term.

These hopes for improvement from the likes of Byrne and Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) officials have now been dashed. Poor performances throughout the autumn have seen trainers crying out for tough decisions to be made about the future of the racecourse.

Evergreen, the track builders, were called in for remedial work after it played poorly on March 13. But there was little joy for the BRC in the week leading up to the Group 2 Victory Stakes on April 29 with trainers Chris Munce and Tony Collan expressing their concerns about the standard of the track. Munce cited a lack of footing on the top layer of the track as one of the key factors, which he said virtually leaves the horses galloping on a sandy surface.

Further issues have been expressed about the lack of draining from the track's surface. On Thursday morning Eagle Farm was rated a heavy 8 with rain last falling in Brisbane on Saturday 20 May (3mm) and with the 10.6 mm falling last Friday, the only other rain landing on the Eagle Farm surface over the past seven days.

Betting tips

The surface problems at Eagle Farm are producing strong bias and no-go zones across the track, leaving jockeys to do their homework on race day to determine the best path to take in the running. These conditions increase the challenge for punters but there's often a lot of value on offer as a result. Here's a few key betting tips to consider before you punt on Kingsford Smith Cup Day this Saturday.

• Form is still important - regardless of the bias that may impact some horses in the running, fitness, form and ability are still key underlying factors which can't be ignored. Punters should keep to their usual practices of form analysis and then keep an open eye on track conditions in earlier run races and use this knowledge to reassess risks with preferred runners.
• Stake according to risk - the simplest example of this is to stake lower in earlier races when there is less known about how the track will play. With rain likely to fall during the meet on Saturday, this could also mean chipping down after a downfall as new puddling zones may appear which can impact runners in different parts of the track.
• Resist betting early - on days like this you want to learn as much as you can. That means watching as many races at Eagle Farm as possible before you load-up. Watching market moves carefully before making late wagers on tracks in this condition allows you to identify any potential signs of no-confidence in selected runners.

Check-out which punters are showing a profit from bets placed at Eagle Farm on our racing leader board page.

Mike Steward