US racing tips: Tom Collins sticks with top rider and trainer at Thistledown

Dawn's Light
7.50 Thistledown
2pts win

No jockey is riding Thistledown better than Luan Machado since the track began its meet on June 4, and the 25-year-old Brazilian will look to build on his 37 per cent strike-rate (11-30) at the venue with a good book of mounts on Tuesday night.

The best of which from a punting perspective could be Dawn's Light, who runs in the six-runner $29,300 allowance (7.50) contest for trainer Will Cowans.

Cowans has also been in fine form of late with three winners and a third from just seven runners here since the beginning of the meet and he will hope that his sole runner on the card can enhance that impressive statistic.

This four-year-old gelding has won just once from 11 outings and clearly wasn't performing at his best when last seen at this track in October.

He was well fancied in similar company to this on his final three starts but could record only a sixth and two fifth-placed finishes.

A hold-up performer who needs them to go a decent gallop, Dawn's Light isn't the strongest stayer over a mile but has the best turn of foot in the field and will be hard to hold if Machado can get him in a challenging position in the straight.

He has placed six times in his career, so has often featured at the business end without winning, and his sole success came in maiden special weight company at Mahoning Valley in February last year.

Dawn's Light fairly drew away from his field that day to win by eight-and-three-quarter lengths, beating an exposed rival who has won three times since. A repeat of that effort would suffice in this field and his morning line price of 7-2 looks very fair.

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