Richard Fourie is the man in the hot seat on Saturday. Riding hot favourite Do It Again the pressure will be on but the 33-year-old shakes his head and smiles when asked if he will be feeling it.

“Not at all,” he says – but he has already given a fair bit of thought as to how the race will be run and where he will position his mount. “Do It Again is not the kind that you can bustle,” he explains. “If you niggle him the whole way he is not going to kick as hard as he can so you have to accept how he runs, place him accordingly and ride him like the good horse he is.”

The gallop is expected to be strong with Milton’s fondness for building up a good lead a deciding factor. Fourie disagrees about the last point. “Milton is a bit of a slow starter these days, then he unwinds and likes to run from the front. But there are others like Kampala Campari who went quite a clip when I beat him on Doublemint in the Peninsula Handicap. Head Honcho also likes to be up there and there are others like Undercover Agent.” He smiles again. “Yea, I think the pace will be on alright and that could play in my favour.”

Fourie admits that he was surprised how well his mount ran in the Green Point. It was the four-year-old’s first run since winning the Durban July five months earlier and the mile was widely expected to be too short for him. “I thought he would be a little bit out of his ground but he ran a superb race and he then he won the Queen’s Plate. It was run my way at a fairly quick pace and the best horse won.”

And the opposition this time? “There are many you have to respect. Last year’s winner Oh Susanna (on whom he won the Paddock Stakes) will be right there. She is very good – she was Horse of the Year for a reason – and she is working so well at home while we have put blinkers on Made To Conquer which has woken him up.”

Fourie has ridden in four of the last seven Mets and finished fourth on Gold Standard two years ago but it is his first ride in 2008 that stands out for him. Pocket Power won it but Fourie was second on the miler Our Giant. “I felt I was going to win and ever since I have believed that a good miler can win the Met.”

But Do It Again is much more than that and the acceleration he produced last time, making up six lengths in the final 300m, colours Fourie’s thinking. “What I feel is a bit in my favour is the smaller number of horses in the race. Even if I am sitting last I could be only six lengths off them. Certainly those in front of me will know I am going to come at them! Do It Again is a very good horse and I am pretty sure he can back it up.”

By Michael Clower