Cousin Casey (on the rail) went oh so close to emulating his uncle, Big City Life, in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July (Picture: Candiese Lenferna Photography)
The Sean Tarry-trained Vercingetorix entire Cousin Casey will be staying in training.
A champion as a two-year-old, Cousin Casey has not won since succeeding on his three-year-old reappearance in the Gr 2 Punters Cup on November 19, 2022, at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth.
However, he ended last season with three successive Gr 1 seconds.
He had earlier had two Gr 2 seconds as well as a Gr 1 fourth.
In fact he finished fourth in the Equus Awards Horse Of The Year points log and second in the Champion Older Male log.
His Owner Ravi Naidoo said, “We have some unfinished business! He’s not going to finish his career as the nearly guy!”
Ravi said about his targets for the season, “I will leave the programming to Sean…. he’s the maestro. The shenanigans around AHS and movement around the country are decisions out of our hands … hope we are not impeded in any way.”
Ravi admitted he was “smarting” when Cousin Casey was snubbed by the Equus Award Panelists.
He said, “I was smarting at the one dimensional view of the Equus panel … Cousin Casey could have made the nominations at least to acknowledge a gallant season. Via their own scoring system, he was second on points attained through the season in the Older Male Champion award. It’s tough to win a group 1. There aren’t even enough to go around. But if you create a points system .. that’s a log over the season, surely the top three on the log make the list of nominations.
I’ve not lost my moorings to suggest he should have won. Nominations matter to acknowledge a gallant season… and racing is a game of small margins. The panel’s adjudication should have that sensitivity… it is just too binary.”
