Bendigo Cup Preview and Tips 30/10/24

When Saturday racing isn’t enough, we’ve also got high-quality Wednesday racing this week with the Bendigo Cup, which is a Group Three with Group One prize money! We are getting to the pointy end of the Spring Racing Carnival with so many Group One races and heaps of horses heading to their Grand Final race.

For the 2024 Bendigo Cup at Bendigo Racecourse, we see a stellar field of 15 runners. Not only is the field high-quality, but it is also wide open. At the time of writing, pretty much half the field is listed with odds of $10 or less. This makes for an interesting race, but a difficult race for me to tip as there are so many genuine chances.

Nevertheless, my Wednesday tips have landed here at OnlyRacing for the 2024 Bendigo Cup. I’ve gone through every runner and evaluated their chances in this race, coming up with my best bets along the way. You don’t want to miss all the epic action this Wednesday in the Bendigo Cup!

I think we’re looking at a fairly moderate race pace, with the likes of the current pre-race equal favourite, Sea King, having all the barrier speed. He jumps from barrier three, will look to find the rail and lead the race (many will be hoping from start to finish!).

The other equal favourite, Berkeley Square doesn’t have the barrier speed of Sea King and will likely try to do the opposite, settling back near the rear of the field, waiting for the perfect time to strike. Hopefully, he doesn’t leave himself too much to do in the closing stages.

The market has already changed so much since when I looked at it a day ago. Berkeley Square was on the second line of betting at $6.00, but now the gelding is the equal favourite with Sea King, at odds of $5.00 with PlayUp. The shortening of odds only further confirms my suspicions that Berkeley Square is the one to beat here.

I’m not too concerned that the gelding is unproven at 2,400m because I think he’ll love the rise in trip. This gives him extra time to chase down the field as he usually likes to sit near the rear of the field. As long as he doesn't get too far back, I reckon he’ll be able to run over the top of the field in the closing stages.

I’m sticking with Sea King as my safe bet for the Bendigo Cup and I think if Berkeley Square leaves his run from the rear of the field too late, Sea King will be the one to win this. Depending on where you look Sea King is in a three-way battle for favouritism and with Bet365, he is the $5.50 equal favourite with Whisky On The Hill.

Sea King comes in light at the weights, only carrying 54.5kg on his back. This will be his first run in Australia, but the last time we saw him, he crossed the line with Onesmoothoperator in the Ebor Handicap. Onesmoothoperator has also come to Australia and dominated last time out in the Geelong Cup. That form stacks up pretty well here if you ask me.

Whenever we get an open field, it means there’s plenty of value floating around and for the most value, I like the look of Herman Hesse. He is currently paying $11 with Dabble, but I think there’s value because he should be a little shorter in my opinion, around the $7.00 to $8.00 mark is where I would rate him.

I think the market is basing that $11 on the middle-of-the-pack finish in the Geelong Cup last week. However, if you look a little further back, he was on a two-race winning streak coming into the Geelong Cup, which included victories in a Listed and Group Two race. He clearly has the class and needs to be respected.

So, which horse do I think is the most dangerous in the Bendigo Cup? Well, that honour has to go to Whisky On The Hill. The 5YO is currently on the third line of betting with QuestBet at odds of $6.25 to win the race and that’s decent value as well. He is coming into the Bendigo Cup with back-to-back wins under his belt.

While this looks to be his toughest test to date (the first time he will contest a Group level race), winning form is good form. There’s a lot of other ticks here as well! Draws barrier two and carries 5kg less than the top weight. I don’t think he will be far away from the action and I can see him getting three wins in a row in this one.

There are so many contenders for the best roughie, thanks to a wide-open field, but I do like the look of Star Vega, who last time out finished third in the Group Three Coongy Cup. The gelding is currently going around with odds of $13 to win the 2024 Bendigo Cup, thanks to Bet Right. 

When finishing third last time out, he made up a reasonable amount of ground to finish 1.9L off the leader. Gets a wide barrier, but jockey Billy Egan has had a bit of success recently riding for the Anthony and Sam Freedman stable. Star Vega doesn’t have a lot of barrier speed, but I think that works in this one. He’ll sit back and use all his closing speed.

All my Bendigo Cup horse racing tips and their odds can be found here:

Bookmaker	Tip	Odds
	Berkeley Square (win)	$6.00
	Sea King (each-way)	$5.50/$2.35
	Herman Hesse (each-way)	$11/$3.50
	Whisky On The Hill (each-way)	$6.25/$2/35
	Star Vega (place)	$4.00