The names of the first entries for the WSB Cape Town Met on 28 January are interesting and revealing.

Young runners

Hotshot three-year-olds Charles Dickens and Cousin Casey are on the list, despite Cape Town’s biggest race seldom being a happy hunting ground for youngsters.

In the past 20 years, the filly Oh Susannah is the only ‘sophomore’ to have triumphed, but trainers Candice Bass-Robinson and Glen Kotzen clearly think their charges are out of the ordinary.

Reluctant travellers

The only trainers raiding the famous old race from outside Western Cape are Mike de Kock and Sean Tarry from Randjesfontein – which is a tad disappointing given the very generous incentives being offered by Cape Racing to entice more visitors to its summer season.

Perhaps the most conspicuous absentee is highly ambitious Turffontein conditioner Johan Janse van Vuuren, who landed the Summer Cup last weekend with Puerto Manzano and has a stable bristling with top-notch talent.

Safe Passage

De Kock’s entries, Sparkling Water and Safe Passage, might answer the question about which of his classy string will spearhead his Cape challenge.

belligerent best as runner-up and, if he takes to Kenilworth’s left- hand turn, will surely be in the reckoning.

Tarry’s star filly Rain In Holland is another early Met entry to have “disappointed” recently – when 2-1 favourite in a Pinnacle Stakes comeback run following a  six-month break which included having a procedure on an entrapped epiglottis.

Ricky Maingard

A famous figure of yesteryear, Ricky Maingard returns to the South African big time – after a decades-long sojourn in Mauritius.

His name is affixed to four-year-old Australian import Al Muthana – moving from De Kock’s care after a brilliant victory in the Gold Challenge at Greyville in July.

Justin Snaith

Cape Town training titan Justin Snaith bids for his second Met victory (aforementioned Oh Susannah being his sole winner so far) with a potentially five-strong team, headed up by 2022 runner-up Jet Dark and including Pomp And Power and Pacaya, from whom we are yet to see their best.

Defending champ

Kommetdieding is back to defend his Met title after a mildly disappointing year – by his standards.

He ran a cracking second in a recent feature sprint and Michelle Rix is tuning him up in the right way after a holiday.

The next step on the path is Saturday’s Grade 2 Green Point Stakes, where he meets no fewer than nine of the 26 Met first entries – including fierce foe Jet Dark.

First entries, WSB Cape Town Met (Grade 1) R2-million

2000m (alphabetical order):

After winning his first four races in a row – increasingly easily – trainer Candice Bass-Robinson’s three-year-old colt was a 1-2 shot to get the better of some useful older horses, even giving them up to 9kg in weight advantage.

In the end, the son of Trippi made the odds look a bargain.

As the field straightened off the left-hand turn, Domeyer flicked the reins once, the horse lengthened his stride and onlookers had breaths removed.

The toiling bunch looked like palookas. The colt was never off the bit and was eased down in the final 150m, winning by 3.25 lengths – and it could have been double that if he’d been asked to exert himself.

As good as the legends of yesteryear? Having seen many an early prediction of “greatness” over 50-plus years, I would reserve judgement for a moment. But he is smart.

One notable dissenting voice amongst all the adulation was that of Karel Miedema, the shrewd proprietor of racing site Sporting Post, who said: “Here we go again … Sea Cottage. Really? Let’s get a benchmark – put a number on it – what rating did he run to, so that we can have some realism, instead of babble?”

Well-known horse owner Peter de Beyer rose to Miedema’s challenge: “I [was] expecting this horse to run a good prep but at the weights to get beaten by Russian Rock and FiftyFiver. He blew them away…

“The lowest rating I can get to using Winchester Mansion as a line is 123. However, using any of the other top five finishers gets above 130. I have Charles Dickens now at 135, given the ease of his victory.

“In international terms I reckon he is around 120 Time Form equivalent…”

Cape Guineas

The upshot of all the excitement is that interest in the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas at Kenilworth in three weeks’ time is sky high. Bookmakers have slashed Charles Dickens to 6-10 for the classic – and to 3-1 favouritism for the subsequent L’Ormarins King’s Plate early in the new year.

Consider that in-form, two-time winner of the latter race Jet Dark has been bumped out to 33-10, wildly popular Kommerdieding to 4-1 and Equus Horse of the Year Captain’s Ransom to 7-1 and you’ll appreciate the level of buzz about the callow youth from the paddocks of Drakenstein.

In terms of the Guineas, aficionados are relishing the prospect of Charles Dickens meeting Cousin Casey, another precocious Cape Town kid who was an impressive winner of the Golden Horseshoe, the Premier’s Champion Stakes and the recent Punters Cup on his way to five wins on the trot.

Hard, sober heads point out that trainer Glen Kotzen’s charge has posted his record at a much higher level and will provide Bass-Robinson’s wunderkind with a true test.

Actually, so might whichever three-year-old Mike de Kock raids with from the Highveld. On Saturday, the master trainer registered a first, second and third in the 1400m Jonsson Workwear Dingaans at Turffontein – with Union Square, Shoemaker and East Coast.

The word is that Shoemaker will be chosen to travel. The highly regarded son of Gimmethegreenlight had a rough passage in the Dingaans and is a lot better than a runner-up position might suggest.

Even Sea Cottage and Horse Chestnut would be getting a bit excited by the prospects.