Dean Kannemeyer’s hopes of a first Sun Met win on Saturday week suffered a hammer blow when Last Winter was drawn widest of all in the 20-runner field when the draw ceremony broke new ground by being conducted in a V & A Waterfront shopping centre yesterday.

Kannemeyer said: “I am not a happy chappy and of course I’m disappointed but at least I’ve got a ****ing good jockey in Piere Strydom. I just hope there is going to be a good pace on.”

Dean Kannemeyer

The favourite Legal Eagle, drawn three and nine when second in each of the last two years, didn’t fare much better because Sean Tarry turned up the champagne bottle to find that the dual Horse Of The Year was drawn 15. Anton Marcus’s famed ability to get his mount fast out of the pens will be tested to the full.

Marinaresco, fifth last year when drawn two, will start from stall 13. “It’s good enough,” said Aldo Domeyer who won on Martial Eagle from gate 15 five years ago. “At least I will miss all the bustling and scrimmaging.”

Greg Cheyne, who won last year’s race on Whisky Baron from pen eight, will start with only three outside him on Sail South. But he didn’t want to start from the inside, saying: “I have twice been drawn really low and both times it worked against me.”

Cheyne reckons 4-7 are the best draws and the fancied filly Oh Susanna starts from gate 6 with Grant van Niekerk already working on the diet he needs to get down to 51.5kg – “It is a strict one and it’s going to take me a week but I will do it.”

Snowdance, his hotpot ride in the Klawervlei Majorca, is drawn nine and Jonathan Snaith underlined her chance, saying: “I think she is the best filly we have seen for a long, long time. She is up there with the likes of Ebony Flyer and Empress Club, and the work she shows at home is phenomenal.”

By Michael Clower