The old wily veteran, versus the up and coming sprinter will be the highlight of Friday’s Casino Cup heats.
The Casino club will stage three heats of their feature event on Friday, with the $25,000 to the winner Final to be held the following Friday, November 29.
The tantalising highlight of the heats will be the third qualifier which sees Fernando Blaster pitted against Cosmic Bonus.
The Terry Jordan-trained Fernando Blaster was brilliant winning his heat and then the final of the Group 2 Lismore Cup, then equaled the track record at Ipswich in their Cup heats, before jumping slowly and never being a threat as the favourite in the Ipswich Cup Final last start.
Fernando Blaster will jump from the seven on Friday a box he has had fair success exiting, and the speedster does have a 27.62s success at Casino - albeit back in August last year.
The old campaigner is Cosmic Bonus (Pictured), who turns five years of age next month. A veteran of 122 starts with 49 wins and 35 placings, Cosmic Bonus may be old, but is far from past his best, and only last week clocked 27.51s winning around Casino.
It was only back in September that Cosmic Bonus went around Casino in 27.15s, just 0.01s off the track record of Weekend Binge set back in April 2016.
The Evelyn Harris-trained sprinter will jump from box three.
Another with a chance in the heat is Queenslander Quara’s Flick, a heat winner of the TAB Million Dollar Chase at Casino in 27.42s, and capable of handling her box eight draw.
The winner of the Casino Million Dollar Chase final was Painted Picture, and he looks well placed in the second heat after coming off a smart win over the shorter trip here last week in a fast 22.96s.
Painted Picture has won five from five over the Casino 484m and has a best time of 27.31s.
The obvious danger is the Tony Brett-trained Charming Chaos who looked to have the Ipswich Cup won before Wise Misty kicked back to win last week. He’s racing in fine form and has a 27.56s win at Casino to his credit.
Connie’s Boy will jump from the red and has been racing in fine form in the city, but will be having his first try over this track and trip.
In the opening heat, Tony Brett’s Sustain The Rage arrives at Casino after campaigning in Melbourne with mixed success and is sure to be ready to go first-up after three months away from the track.
Others with prospects in the heat are local Magic Liar, and Queenslanders Let’s Go Ozzi and Cairnlea Blue.
