Casey makes a welcome return

Jack Milner

The much-awaited return on Cousin Casey will take place in the Grade 2 Cape Punters Cup over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday.

The son of Vercingetorix dominated the juvenile features in KwaZulu-Natal over the winter season with victories in the Listed Gatecrasher, the Grade 2 Golden Horseshoe and finally the Grade 1 Premiers Champion Stakes.

Glen Kotzen’s charge has not been seen in action since that last victory over 1600m at Greyville on 30 July and many pundits will be keen to see how this colt has developed in his first race as a three-year-old.

On paper he looks to be the biggest threat to Charles Dickens in next month’s Grade 1 Cape Guineas and no doubt Kotzen will be intent on ensuring a favourable showing from his charge.

With the Guineas being his main target, Kotzen will not have Cousin Casey at his peak right now but with R2-million race just four weeks away, he will need to be close to his best form.

Cousin Casey ended the season named as the Equus Champion Two-Year-Old colt and his connections would surely like to maintain that reputation.

Despite his 112-day layoff, he looks all set to get his three-year-old career off to a winning start.

Grant van Niekerk rode Cousin Casey in all three of those feature races and has a 100% win record with the colt, which he would love to keep intact.

Grade 3 Langerman winner Light Speed, a start-to-finish winner of his only three-year-old outing 10 weeks ago, appears the main danger to Cousin Casey and this long-striding Justin Snaith-trained Gimmethegreenlight colt will be hard to peg back if allowed to dictate terms under Richard Fourie.

In the day's supporting feature, the Listed Sophomore Sprint over 1200m, last season's leading Cape Town two-year-old We're Jamming puts his unbeaten course-and-distance record on the line under top-weight 60kg. His task, conceding 2kg to all 10 rivals, will be no walk in the park.

In fact, he will battle to beat Hithemhardsunshine who made his return to racing last month in the Need For Speed Sprint (Non-Black Type) over 1000m where he finished a 1.25-length second behind Trompie.

Trainer Eric Sands made it clear that his charge would need the run and had bigger events on his agenda. In fact, Hithemhardsunshine finished best of all and with additional fitness and distance he will take a power of beating. He is 4kg better off with Trompie and comes into the race as the best weighted runner by at least 3.5kg.

Sands has engaged Keagan de Melo to ride the son of What A Winter who stands out as the best bet on a somewhat otherwise tricky card.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 6 Royal Port Louis, 2 Nevada King, 3 Shotgun Willie, 4 Montien

Race 2: 3 Chansonette, 1 Marina, 4 Silver Darling, 7 Kailene

Race 3: 2 Allende, 3 Gift From Heaven, 12 Grandi Orecchie, 14 Jazzbella

Race 4: 11 Mohandas, 13 Selukwe, 16 Storm Boulevard, 8 Ready Or Not

Race 5: 7 Academic Gold, 6 Fleeting, 8 Young Love, 5 Peut Etre Moi

Race 6: 8 Cousin Casey, 6 Light Speed, 13 Le Morne, 15 At My Command

Race 7: 1 Hithemhardsunshine, 11 We're Jamming, 9 Trompie, 10 Iconic Destination

Race 8: 5 Sun Dazed, 7 Let It Burn, 9 Masked Vigilante, 3 Poltergeist

BEST BET

Race 7 No 1 Hithemhardsunshine

VALUE BET

Race 5 No 7 Academic Gold

BEST SWINGER

Race 2 1x3

BIPOT

R324

Leg 1: 2, 6

Leg 2: 1, 3

Leg 3: 2, 3, 12

Leg 4: 11, 13, 16

Leg 5: 6, 7, 8

Leg 6: 6, 8, 13

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R216

Leg 1: 1, 3

Leg 2: 2, 3, 12

Leg 3: 11, 13, 16

Leg 4: 6, 7, 8

Leg 5: 6, 8

Leg 6: 1

Leg 7: 5, 7

PICK 6

R1920

Leg 1: 2, 3, 12, 13

Leg 2: 8, 11, 13, 15, 16

Leg 3: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Leg 4: 6, 8, 13, 15

Leg 5: 1

Leg 6: 3, 5, 7, 9

JACKPOT 1

R120

Leg 1: 8, 11, 13, 15, 16

Leg 2: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Leg 3: 6, 8, 13, 15

Leg 4: 1

JACKPOT 2

R96

Leg 1: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Leg 2: 6, 8, 13, 15

Leg 3: 1

Leg 4: 3, 5, 7, 9