Picture: Ravi Naidoo leads in Cousin Casey after his win in the Grade 1 Premiers Champion Stakes (Candiese Lenferna).

Ravi Naidoo Loving Being The Underdog

Ravi Naidoo, owner of the crack colt Cousin Casey, will be eating and sleeping racing for the next few days in the build up to the most talked about race for years, the Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas.

He said, “It is a rare privilege to own a horse who has won his last five starts, including a Grade 1 and two Grade 2s, and yet be going into this big race as the underdog! The attention has been diverted away from Cousin Casey and it has de-pressurised us and I am loving it!”

However, he did not want to take anything away from the opposition and added, “I have seldom seen a horse win as effortlessly as Charles Dickens has been doing. It is being billed as a match race, but I wouldn’t want to be disrespectful either to Mike de Kock’s pair or Brett Crawford’s pair and others. There are also the elements, as it looks like there is going to be a howling South Easter on the day. We are also drawn in the Pick And Pay parking lot. Luck in running is always important, but I hope the race is without incident and it is a proper fair run race.”

Ravi went through a roller coaster of emotions in the early days of his association with Cousin Casey.

There was the disappointment of thinking he had lost the bidding battle.

He had to leave last year’s BSA National Yearling Sale before Cousin Casey had come into the ring because of a dinner engagement in Cape Town. He ended up following the bidding while sitting on an aeroplane at OR Tambo airport.

However, disappointment turned to elation when Glen Kotzen, who had persuaded him to buy the colt, phoned and announced, “We got him!”

The R375,000 was more than the original budget for the colt, who is by Vercingetorix out of Casey Tibbs mare Bretton Woods, a full-sister to Kotzen’s Durban July winner Big City Life.

However, Vercingetorix has become a boom sire and that price would be a steal for such a yearling today.

Cousin Casey came home to Kotzen’s Woodhill Estate via Big Sky Ranch in the Karoo, formerly known as the Gary Player Stud.

However, when Ravi went to visit him for the first time he admitted to immediately feeling “buyer’s remorse.”

He said, “I saw this furry little thing. He was not the most impressive specimen and I said to Glen ‘He is going to have to do some growing.’”

But as time went by and he lost his winter coat “he became unrecognisable”.

Later on Glen told me. “Gee, Ravi, he can run!”

Kotzen tried to set up a nice opening win in a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1000m on L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate day, where he finished third. He then ran in the Listed Cape Town Summer Juvenile Stakes over 1000m on Met day, finishing fourth.

Ravi said, “So he blotted his copybook there a bit, but was up against tearaways who were just too quick for him. From the day he went around the turn, he has not turned back.”

It is well documented how he swept all before him in KZN, winning a Juvenile Plate over 1400m, a Listed race over 1400m, a Grade 2 over 1400m and a Grade 1 over 1600m, all from wide draws.

He showed his versatility too, as he won one of those races from the front, although his most memorable wins were from off the pace.

He is capable of “unfurling” a devastating finishing run, as Ravi puts it.

Ravi added, “But his most impressive win was when giving his peers 2kg in the Grade 2 Punters Cup (over 1600m) in his reappearance and beating them easily.”

He pointed out, “He has done it from wide draws and in big fields, which some of his rivals have not done.”

One of Cousin Casey’s biggest assets is his superb racing temperament.

Ravi said, “He is composed in the parade ring, he is an unflustered, chilled horse who loves a snuggle. Grant has always got off and said this horse follows instructions, he does just what you tell him to do.”

Ravi, who was born and grew up in Durban, also spoke about his history in racing.

He said, “I am definitely not a Johnny-come-lately. I have had a long love affair with racing ever since In Full Flight won the July in 1972. I was only eight years old, but can remember my father backing the winner. After that I used to read the form and was fascinated by the pictures showing the 800m, 400m and finishing positions. I used to know all the course records etc too.”

He continued, “Then in the early 1980s members of my family became an advance guard during the apartheid years by being granted their colours, so they were pioneers and owned a good horse called Casal Garcia.”

This Harry Hotspur filly won seven races and was multiple stakes-placed, including a narrow second in the Tibouchina.

Ravi also recalled her breaking a course record once.

Later, Ravi went down to UCT and with encouragement from Professor Tim Noakes decided to do a post grad study on EPO, a naturally occurring cytokine which was a controversial topic in athletics at the time as there were practices being used to manipulate its abundance in the bloodstreams of unscrupulous athletes.

He thus regularly accompanied veterinarian Bob McDaniel on his rounds at the Cape Town training tracks, which always ended with him taking some vials of blood back to UCT for study purposes having been drawn from racehorse’s neck veins.

Ravi then decided to contact Alec Hogg, who was at the time publishing the Racing Digest, to tell him he was in a good position to talk to trainers.

“So I wrote for the Racing Digest for a while.”

Later, with his second pay cheque working for an advertising company, he bought a 10% share in a Dancing Champ filly who was a three-parts sister to Olympic Duel.

He began expanding his interest, but it all ground to a halt when a consortium he had joined bought into an expensive import called Habaayib.

This horse injured a canon bone in his third SA start and Ravi decided to take a complete sabbatical from ownership. He did not even excercise his stallion rights.

It was at a L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate after-party a few years ago where he was encouraged by Gaynor Rupert to own again.

She invited him to join the L’Ormarins Syndicate and he accepted.

Later, Gaynor, Pam Isdell and Ravi started a fun group in which they buy three horses at the National Yearling Sales per year and race them together.

They call themselves “The Tricolores” and draw to see whose colours the horses will run in. The person who draws the colours is also allowed to choose the trainer.

One of their first runners together was Zapatillas, who won the Grade 2 WSB Guineas.

As the bug had bitten again, Ravi began buying for himself and hence the purchase of Cousin Casey.

Ravi believes Saturday’s race is good for the whole country as it has ignited such interest.

He was full of praise for Cape Racing and said, “At last racing is being run by people who fundamentally know the game. They are also running it like a business. So, I think this is just the start and there is a lot more to come. I must also mention Hollywood for the incentives they have put in place. It was wonderful to see Uncle Den collecting a 50 grand cheque on Saturday! Cape Racing has been a breath of fresh air and the Guineas now is no longer just a parochial race. What a day is in store for all of us on Saturday!”

Ravi appreciates good business practices having owned his own marketing company since 1993.

Picture: Hollywoodbets Kenilworth is the place to be on Saturday (Cape Racing).

Pick 6 Pool Estimated To Reach R6 Million On Saturday

Charles Dickens leads Guineas charge

Jack Milner (4Racing)

Racing fans are in for a bumper day’s racing at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday as there are 11 races on the card which will include two BiPots (Race 2 to 7 and Races 6 to 11) and three Jackpots (Races 1 to 4 and Races 5 to 8 and Races 8-11).

Of most significance is a R1-million Pick 6 carryover with the pool likely to reach R6 million.

Charles Dickens will put his unbeaten record on the line in Saturday’s R2-million Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas.

Fifteen runners have been carded to face the starter in this Grade 1 race over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth.

Although Charles Dickens is now taking on the best three-year-old colts in the land and that he has landed No 11 draw, bookmakers are taking no chances and the Trippi colt has been priced up at 11-20 to make it six wins from six outings.

Trained by Candice Bass-Robinson, Charles Dickens has got better with every run and the manner in which he disposed of older rivals last time, despite giving all but Captain Of Stealth weight, could not have been more impressive.

Aldo Domeyer has the ride.

The opposition is led by Cousin Casey, winner of both the Golden Horseshoe (Grade 2) and Premiers Champion Stakes (Grade 1) at Hollywoodbets Greyville last season.

He made his comeback at Kenilworth in the Grade 2 Cape Cup over 1600m and ran out an imposing victor.

Glen Kotzen’s charge, quoted at 4-1, also had no luck with his barrier position and will jump from draw No 14. The son of Vercingetorix will be ridden by Grant van Niekerk.

The Joburg challenge is headed up by Mike de Kock-trained Union Square and Shoemaker, first and second respectively in the Grade 2 Dingaans at Turffontein, as well as Grant Maroun’s Anfields Rocket, who had both De Kock runners behind him in the Grade 3 Graham Beck Stakes at Turffontein.

Also run at the meeting will be the Grade 2 Ridgemont Highlands Peninsula Handicap and the Grade 3 Victress Stakes for four-year-old fillies and mares, both over 1800m.

Betting on the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas:

11-20 Charles Dickens

4-1 Cousin Casey

11-1 Shoemaker

16-1 Union Square

20-1 At My Command

25-1 Anfields Rocket

35-1 Royal Aussie

40-1 Le Morne

50-1 Money Heist

66-1 Port Louis, Street Outlaw, Lord William, Dave The King

80-1 Famous And Rich

90-1 Canford Lights

Final field for the R2-million Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas (Grade 1) over 1600m.

1 – 1 AT MY COMMAND (B Crawford) K de Melo 60.0 – 109

2 – 2 PORT LOUIS (B Crawford) K Matsunyane 60.0 – 105

3 – 3 CANFORD LIGHTS (C Bass-Robinson) G Wright 60.0 – 80

4 – 4 UNION SQUARE (M F De Kock) R Simons 60.0 – 116

5 – 5 STREET OUTLAW (R Maingard) S Veale 60.0 – 99

6 – 6 ROYAL AUSSIE (J S Snaith) R Fourie 60.0 – 99

7 – 7 SHOEMAKER (M F De Kock) B Fayd’Herbe 60.0 – 114

8 – 8 FAMOUS AND RICH (G S Kotzen) C Habib 60.0 – 96

9 – 9 LORD WILLIAM (V H Marshall) J Jacobs 60.0 – 100

10 – 10 MONEY HEIST (G van Zyl (Jnr)) P Strydom 60.0 – 103

11 – 11 CHARLES DICKENS (C Bass-Robinson) A Domeyer 60.0 – 121

12 – 12 DAVE THE KING (V H Marshall) C Orffer 60.0 – 105

13 – 13 ANFIELDS ROCKET (G J Maroun) G Lerena 60.0 – 102

14 – 14 COUSIN CASEY (G S Kotzen) G van Niekerk 60.0 – 115

15 – 15 LE MORNE (B Crawford) L Mxothwa 60.0 – 105

Same Trainer: (1,2,15) (3,11) (4,7) (8,14) (9,12)

Picture: Cousin Casey and Charles Dickens clash in Saturday’s R2 million Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas (Photos taken by Wayne Marks).

Miedema and Faull Ratings For Charles Dickens And Cousin Casey

Cape Racing

Rating racehorses is part art/ part science, and it’s rare for figure-makers to be in complete agreement. Charles Dickens has an Official Merit Rating of (121) ahead of Cousin Casey (115) and two Highveld raiders, Union Square (116) and Shoemaker (114.)

Karel Miedema’s Raceform takes a more conservative view, using a slightly different scale, but effectively also ranks Charles Dickens on top of the current Classic generation with a RFR of 110 vs 107 for Cousin Casey, and ahead of those Jozi invaders, including Anfields Rocket (RFR 103, draw 13/15).

Respected classical weight handicapper, Charles Faull reckons that Charles Dickens “could be the next Sea Cottage, Horse Chestnut or Politician in SAF’s racing value hierarchy.’”

Faull would like to reserve judgement till season end, but his preliminary ratings based on the chestnut son of Trippi’s concession of weight at a remarkable last start drubbing of older former Cape Guineas victor, Russian Rock send him into the figure makers’ stratosphere – 131 + vs Cousin Casey 128.

He also sees this year’s field as particularly strong with the potential to yield five + individual Grade 1 winners over time.

One of those, At My Command (OMR 109) fared well at the barrier draw and will have the inside alley (1). He has twice run with distinction against the track bias and may upset if getting the run of the race.

Trainer Mike de Kock has a brilliant record in the Guineas so to overlook his runners is folly. Union Square (drawn 4) and Shoemaker (7) must up their figs a few ticks – not inconceivable given the surges of improvement properly conditioned three-year-old thoroughbreds can make.

Picture: Mike de KOck scored a 1-2-3 in this year’s Grade 2 Jonsson Workwear Dingaans. Union Square is seen powering to victory above (JC Photos)

Fancied Guineas Runners Must Beware De Kock’s Grade 1 Record

Trainer is sending his first and second Dingaans placings, Union Square and Shoemaker

David Mollett (Business Day)

Union Square — Business Day’s 11-2 winner of the Dingaans — won the Turffontein race in good style and — from a favourable draw — has to be fancied to finish in the first four. Randall Simons retains the mount on the son of Rafeef.

Stablemate Shoemaker — a R200,000 son of Gimmethegreenlight — cost punters plenty with his defeat in the Dingaans and will now have Bernard Fayd’Herbe in the saddle for Saturday’s grade 1 race.

Form students will be quick to point out that Union Square has two lengths to find with Anfields Rocket on their running in the Graham Beck Stakes. Robert Maroun’s star performer also makes the trip to the Cape with Gavin Lerena booked for the ride.

Union Square may get a lot closer to Anfields Rocket this time, and possibly beat him, because Simons had a shocking draw to overcome in the Graham Beck and also found the distance of 1,400m too sharp.

On Saturday — with the long run-in down the Kenilworth straight — there is time for Union Square to get into top gear and run a big race for his owners, Al Adiyaat SA.

Cousin Casey is the firm second favourite and the Glen Kotzen camp are bullish that their Equus award-winning three-year-old can make Charles Dickens pull out all the stops.

After a workout between Cousin Casey and Han Solo, Kotzen told the Sporting Post that his latest gallop was “a lot better than the one he put up before his Punters Cup win”.

Even so, Kotzen will be well aware that his charge will have to overcome barrier 14 while Charles Dickens isn’t that much better off having to jump from barrier 11.

Apart from the De Kock duo, none of the fancied contenders drew favourable barriers. Anfields Rocket is positioned between Charles Dickens and Cousin Casey in barrier 13.

Anfields Rocket has been bought by the Hollywood Syndicate and victory would give them a notable double as their talented filly, Make It Snappy, won the Cape Fillies Guineas.

Brett Crawford is enjoying a good season and is in third place in the national trainers log. The Cape trainer will be happy his runner, At My Command, has drawn in pole position but he is a 16-1 chance in ante-post betting.

After the final Guineas field was announced on Monday, bookmaker Lance Michael had Charles Dickens heading the market at 0.63-1. Second favourite, Cousin Casey, is quoted at 4.56-1.

De Kock’s entry, Shoemaker, is third choice with the odds of the Dingaans runner-up at 10-1 — shorter than his stablemate, Union Square.

Picture: Former jockey and trainer Ivan Moore, father of the South African Jockeys Academy’s (SAJA) chief riding master Robert Moore and grandfather of Summerveld trainer Darryl Moore, presents the Moore Family Trophy to Rachel Venniker and Kyle Strydom (SAJA).

Venniker And Strydom First Recipients Of Moore Family Trophy

The Moore Family Trophy is presented to an apprentice who has achieved the milestone of riding 100 winners.

This first presentation of the trophy goes to Rachel Venniker and Kyle Strydom.

Picture: Dennis and Gill Drier receive the incentive cheque for a winning raider at a “festival” meeting (Cape Racing).

Uncle Den Lands A Big And Deserved Cheque

It was fitting that the first R50,000 incentive cheque for raiding trainers in Cape Town went to Summerveld stalwart Dennis Drier.

The Drier-trained Gimmethegreenlight filly Live My Life won the cheque for Dennis and owner Z Bifov also received R50,000.

The filly won a MR 92 Handicap over 1200m under Sean Veale on Sunday by a comfortable 2,50 lengths.

Any raiding horses who wins a race in Cape Town lands R10,000 for both the trainer and owner.

However, if the win occurs at a “festival” meeting, the cheque for both trainer and owner increases to R50,000.

Sunday’s meeting featured the Grade 2 Cape Merchants and was classified as a festival meeting.

The incentive has paid dividends because about 22% of the runners at Sunday’s meeting were raiders.

However, “Uncle Den” has been supporting Cape racing for years without having been offered the incentive to do so.

Therefore, it was fitting he was the first recipient of a R50,000 cheque for a raider win.

Drier was particularly appreciated in the fair Cape in the halcyon days of the diminutive Dynasty filly Beach Beauty, who converted “meeting banker” status on at least three occasions at big Kenilworth meetings.

The Grade 1 Paddock Stakes in both 2013 and 2014 and the Grade 1 Majorca in 2014 were her most notable Cape victories.

Another famous win in Cape Town for the Drier team was when the Equus Champion Sprinter Val De Ra beat the subsequent twice Equus Champion Sprinter What A Winter in the Grade 1 Cape Flying Championship.

Drier also has a good record in the Grade 2 Premier Trophy, winning it with the like of Beach Beauty and Master Of My Fate and the latter was also a winner of the Grade 2 Peninsula Handicap.

Picture: Tarry and Habib’s roll began with Vercingetorix filly Miss Geriatrix (JC Photos).

Tarry four-timer, Habib Treble, Matsunyane Double

Sean Tarry scored his second four-timer in the space of a fortnight at Vaal Classic track today.

On the downside his champion filly Rain In Holland put in her second successive disappointing effort, and although it was a preparation run over too sharp a trip and probably run at too slow a pace for her, the margin of defeat, 6,50 lengths, was a bit concerning.

Calvin Habib rode three of Tarry’s winners.

Kabelo Matsunyane rode a double on the day.

Tarry has had 32 wins this season at a strike rate of 13.62%.

Habib is on 53 wins for the season at a strike rate of 8.76%.

Matsunyane is on 56 wins at 12.15%.

Picture: The question subject seen winning the Premier’s Champion Stakes (Candiese Lenferna).

Today’s Question

Who was the last horse to win both the Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes and the Grade 1 Cape Guineas?

Click Here To See Hollywoodbets Greyville Poly Fields, Wednesday

NB Please wait a few seconds for fields to appear.

Picture: Soqrat wins the Cape Guineas (Liesl King).

ANSWER TO TODAY’S QUESTION:

The Mike de Kock-trained Australian-bred Epaulette colt Soqrat was the last horse to achieve the double that Cousin Casey will be going for on Saturday. He did it in 2018.

Turf Talk Newsletter – 13 December 2022