Australian racing picks for Grafton and Kembla Grange

It’s Grafton Cup Day in Australia, the second day of the popular Grafton July Racing Carnival in northern New South Wales.

Here is an early pick for the eight-race card at Grafton, and another at Kembla Grange to hopefully get our night of Aussie racing started on a winning note.

Grafton, Race 1: #4 Aceplay

This gelding is trained in Queensland by Michael Costa but is making the short trip across the border, in an effort to make it four straight wins.

He has shown versatility lately. He made a lovely winning run from off the pace at Toowoomba last start, but was on the pace in his previous two.

Aceplay is drawn to position more handy tonight, and jockey Ben Looker has won on him before.

Kembla Grange, Race 1: #2 War Memorial

Trained by the powerful Peter and Paul Snowden team in Sydney, this juvenile gelding hasn’t raced for 16 weeks, but his two recent trials have been sensational.

The stable always has their runners wound up and ready to go first up from a break, and with race experience on his side, War Memorial has the upper hand on some of his rivals.

The blinkers come off for the first time, and those 8-1 morning-line odds are extremely attractive.

Good luck!