Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Casey Cool outpaces the pack

David Thiselton
The Darryl Hodgson-trained Casey Cool proved his liking for Greyville when winning the Grade 2 Post Merchants over 1 200m on Friday night although the race didn’t pan out as expected and his victory owed a lot to the fine horsemanship of Kevin Shea. Casey Cool, a strongly built six-year-old gelding by Casey Tibbs, is a difficult customer who even has to work in blinkers and usually needs a few things to go in his favour. He needs cover as he otherwise doesn’t settle and he needs to be held up for as long as possible as he has a short, albeit devastating, run in. However, Friday night’s race didn’t seem to be panning out for him in the early stages as the Dennis Bosch-trained Noble Heir went to the front and dictated a slow pace. Casey Cool, breaking from stall eight, was towards the outside of runners and began to fight for his head. His chances would have been gone had it not been for the fine hands of Shea, for the big horse’s unruly behaviour was shortlived and instead he was settled in behind the vanguard. Shea also read it correctly at the top of the straight, deciding not to hang around with the pace having been so slow.
Casey Cool’s superb burst of speed saw him wrest the lead halfway down the straight and then put daylight between himself and the pack and it was now just a case of whether he could hang on. “I was asking myself whether I had gone too early but he was loving it the whole way down the straight,” said Shea, who geed him up by making a continual clicking noise. “I was worried they were going to come at me before the line because I didn’t want to have to use the whip. “But the pace hadn’t been strong, so a lot of them were left out of their ground and couldn’t make it up.” The Joey Ramsden-trained Bush Pirate looked very well handicapped on his run in the Grade 1 Cape Flying Championship and also has a liking for Greyville, so his runner-up position was not as much of a surprise as the place payout of R4,50 suggested. He came from way back to be narrowly beaten although he did receive 3kg from Casey Cool, who carried 59,5kg, just half-a-kilogram less than the topweights Gaultier and Thunder Key.
The Sean Tarry-trained Mr Top finished third. He has done well since being kept to sprints, but has appeared to be battling off his current merit rating, so this was a fine effort. As a handy type he was suited to the slow pace and stayed on resolutely. The Weiho Marwing-trained Moroccan was slowly away and had to come from near the tail of the field, a tremendous effort considering the false pace from one of the country’s most promising sprinters. Casey Cool is owned by Hassen Adams and was bred by Highflyer Stud. In the seventh, a Pinnacle Stakes event over 1 800m, Shea won very easily on the Mike Bass-trained Super Storm, who advertised his claims for the forthcoming Gold Circle Derby over 2400m at Clairwood on July 3. The Vodacom Durban July and Champions Cup entries, Galileo’s Galaxy and Aslan, finished second and third respectively although the latter’s run is best ignored as he was noticeably stubborn before going down and was then left out of his ground at the top of the straight by Super Storm's charge for home. Shea made it a quick hat-trick in the last on the Patrick Lunn-trained Eliza Maria, a troublesome sort who also benefitted from the top jockey's horsemanship. Other notable wins came from the Mike de Kock-trained Ilha Grande, who is by Tiger Ridge out of the champion race mare, Ilha Da Vitoria. She won the second, a maiden over 1 300m, with ease. The Dennis Drier-trained Val De Ra showed her class by sauntering to her sixth victory in seven starts in the sixth, a Conditions Plate over 1000m. The Charles laird-trained Flowing Amber, a consistent three-year-old filly by Spectrum, won the fifth, a MR 86 Handicap over 1 400m, with topweight and she should pick up some black-type soon. The third, a maiden over 2 000m, was won by the Alyson Wright-trained Hail The Giant, who is by Giant’s Causeway out of a Saddler’s Wells mare and looks to have good prospects as a stayer.

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