After making a nice impression in their down under debut at the start of the month, Andrew Campbell’s smart Kiwi raider Cauthen returns to Moonee Valley on Saturday for a shot at their first black type win in the Mitchell McKenzie Stakes 2013.

Clevadude (pictured) will be out to defeat the favourite Cauthen again on the weekend. Photo: Race Horse Photos Australia.

The Darci Brahma colt won their race debut at Te Rapa in New Zealand by an easy eight and a half lengths in July, earning at trip to Australia to target the bigger races for their kind during the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival.

One of those is the $1 million Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 16 for which they are the $7 second favourite for at bookmaker.com.au.

They took their first step towards the Caulfield Guineas at Moonee Valley on August 3 and were far from disgraced when racing over an unsuitably short 1000m to finish a length away second behind Clevadude.

Now they get the chance to turn the tables on their last start conqueror when they run in Saturday’s $120,000 Listed Essendon Nissan McKenzie Stakes (1200m).

Drawn in gate four with James McDonald to retain his association, Cauthen has opened top of the markets at $2.75 to win.

If all goes to plan they could also be a chance at racing in Australasia’s weight-for-age championship, the $3 million Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) back at Moonee Valley on October 26.

They are followed in the McKenzie Stakes odds meanwhile by four other single-figure fancies with:

• #1 Long John ($4.20) – Early money coming in for this in-form Peter Snowden-trained Street Cry gelding, yet to taste defeat sitting three-from-three so far the last a big four length effort at Flemington to win April’s Listed ANZAC Day Stakes (1410m), first-up over this distance could be a bit sharp but plenty of upside
• #4 Clevadude ($6) – Beat Saturday’s favourite first-up here off a length seven month spell but can they hold Cauthen off again? While most of these will get better over more distance this Rick Hore-Lacy-trained son of Bel Esprit is almost certainly a short distance sprinter who failed in their only run over greater than 1000m so far when 14^th in the Magic Millions Classic in January
• #3 Shamus Award ($8) – Experienced Danny O’Brien-trained Snitzel colt has had five starts for four minor placings but remains a maiden, might not have won a race yet but has form around the best including their fifth in the Blue Dimaond and their very close second behind Twilight Royale last start at Flemington in the Group 2 VRC Sires Produce (1400m), distance should be good when resuming and were third at Moonee Valley on debut behind the ill-fated Crack A Roadie last October
• #7 Pyrrolic ($8) – Most lightly-raced of the bunch has had just the one previous run when putting three lengths on their closest rival over the 1200m at Sandown in May, plenty of hype but needs to answer to that without much to go on form wise, European breeding suggests will be better over a mile or so

To get behind Cauthen or your other selections for one of the Moonee Valley majors on the weekend head over to bookmaker.com.au and lock in the right price!

2013 McKenzie Stakes Odds

Moonee Valley Race 4 – 2:00pm (AEST) – 24/08/2013

*Fixed Win odds provided by bookmaker.com.au and subject to change