Do It Again is a confident selection to add the Sun Met to his Durban July and Queen’s Plate triumphs at Kenilworth tomorrow – as well as end the six-year hoodoo on Met favourites. Stable companion Oh Susanna could well prove his biggest danger.
The four-year-old, having won the country’s greatest race over 11 furlongs, was widely expected to find last time’s mile on the short side. Not a bit of it. He produced a turn of foot that even Usain Bolt would have envied to make up six lengths in 300m and win going away. He is trained by a champion and Richard Fourie (“everything has gone right for me”) is riding out of his skin at the moment.
Oh Susanna won this with authority 12 months ago and has done little wrong since. The Horse of the Year’s chances of becoming the fifth female to win this in ten years have been boosted by some spectacular homework and Justin Snaith says: “This is her third run of the campaign and you will see the best of her but there is not much in it between her and Do It Again.” At 15-2 she is a huge price and Bernard Fayd’Herbe, bidding for his fourth win, is a Met master.
If you want double figure odds then Head Honcho at 12-1 is the one for you. He has won six of his last seven and he was tremendously impressive in the Premier when his manner of victory suggested there are even bigger things to come. Andre Nel, understandably keen to follow Yogas Govender and Brett Crawford in winning the Met as Sabine Plattner’s private trainer, says that the horse has improved since his last win.
Rainbow Bridge has been a little weak in the market in recent days, drifting from 7-2 to as much as 5-1, possibly because the focus of the papers and the websites has been more on the other leading contenders. Eric Sands and Anton Marcus are under no illusions about the task the four-year-old is facing – on ratings the second favourite should only finish fifth – but things didn’t go his way in the Queen’s Plate when he started the race, quite literally, on the wrong foot.
His jockey will ensure that he gets away on terms this time and his breeding suggests he just might appreciate the extra distance. There is still a worry about the extent of his pre-race anxiety and the noise of the crowd will make the Queen’s Plate seem like a teddy bears’ picnic. If he can cope with all the razzmatazz his renowned finishing kick just might be enough. Have a good look at him as he leaves the parade ring and, if he appears to be coping, don’t leave him out.
And then there is the old faithful. Legal Eagle lost some of his gloss, as well as his unbeaten mile record, in the Queen’s Plate but Sean Tarry explained in this paper on Wednesday how the horse wasn’t quite right (“anybody is entitled to an off day”) and that he seems to be back on song. It’s hard to believe that he will make it fourth time lucky over a distance almost certainly just beyond his best but, twice second and once fourth, he could well make the frame yet again.
Undercover Agent has a chance of getting there too but doubts about the trip, particularly with the race expected to be run at a proper gallop and may find him out in the final furlong. If everybody is wrong about the pace, though, his trainer would be in with a chance of Met number four. However the bookies assess the likelihood of this happening at around one in twenty.
Martial Eagle started at 80-1 six years ago and four of the last nine winners went off at 15-1 or more. But this time it should be the favourite and another victory for a four-year-old, by far the most successful age group recently with five wins in the last eight runnings.
By Michael Clower
