David Thiselton
There were only eleven horses still standing their ground in the Gr 1 wfa WSB Met before the barrier draw ceremony, which was set to take place at the Racing Pavilion at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth last evening.
Of the six yards still involved only two have won the big race before, Justin Snaith and Sean Tarry.
Justin Snaith will be out to equal Mike Bass’s record of winning the Met for four years in a row.
Bass won it three years in a row with the legendary Pocket Power from 2007 to 2009 and then with Pocket Power’s full sister River Jetez in 2010.
Snaith won it with Jet Dark in 2023, with Double Superlative in 2024 and with Eight On Eighteen in 2025.
Eight On Eighteen defends his crown this year.
If he wins it Snaith would obviously have done his four in succession with three different horses as opposed to Bass doing it with two horses.
Snaith will have achieved the remarkable feat of doing four in a row with four different horses if any of See It Again, Sail The Seas, Native Ruler, Okavango or Legal Counsel win the big race.
Richard Fourie will ride Eight On Eighteen, Andrew Fortune is on See It Again, Muzi Yeni is on Sail The Seas, JP van der Merwe is on Native Ruler, Callan Murray is on Okavango and Aldo Domeyer is aboard Legal Counsel.
Snaith holds a world record of eight winners at a single meeting, which he achieved on Met day in 2016.
He will have a chance of breaking that record at this year’s Met meeting, because he contests every one of the races and has a total of 43 runners in all at the meeting.
Sean Tarry won the Met with Alastor in 2005.
Gavin Lerena will be riding Tarry’s runner this year, Cosmic Speed.
Lerena is one of only four jockeys in this year’s race who have won the Met before.
Richard Fourie, JP van der Merwe and Aldo Domeyer are the other three.
There might only be eleven runners, but this year’s Met will be a true championship race.
Eight On Eighteen gets a chance to avenge his defeat to The Real Prince in the Hollywoodbets Durban July, a race in which he faced the latter on terms 2,5kg worse than weight for age.
He has since been defeated by The Real Prince in the Gr 1 wfa L’Ormarins King’s Plate over 1600m, but that was over a distance short of his optimum and it was his first run since the July too, so he likely needed it.
The Real Prince was defeated on wfa terms in a middle distance race after the July, when Gladatorian beat him narrowly in the Gr 1 wfa HKJC Champions Cup over 1800m.
See It Again was in third place behind that pair in that race and was a narrow third to The Real Prince in the King’s Plate, while Gladatorian was finishing fast in the King’s Plate and should enjoy the easy 2000m of Hollywoodbets Kenilworth.
So the weight for age clashes of Gladatorian, The Real Prince and See It Again has its latest renewal and Eight On Eighteen joins the fray alongside the like of Garrix and Sail The Seas.
The Piet and Elbert Steyn-trained Garrix went close in the Gr 2 Ridgemont Green Point before possibly running a flat race in the King’s Plate. He finished like a train in the Green Point and should be mature enough to step up to 2000m having won the Gr 3 Legal Eagle Stakes as a Three-year-old last year before failing by a shorthead in the Listed Pocket Power Stakes over 1950m.
Sail The Seas beat Eight On Eighteen and Cosmic Speed in the Gr 2 WSB Guineas and he was a close fourth in the King’s Plate. Over 2000m he was beaten only 1,50 lengths by Eight On Eighteen in last year’s Gr 1 SplashOut Cape Derby.
Native Ruler and Okavango are capable of running good races, although their tasks at wfa level are tougher than they have had in the races they have done well in.
The Tony Peter-trained The Equator has a tougher task than he had in the Gr 1 Betway Summer Cup, which is a handicap, and he has a tough task with Okavango on their meeting in the Gr 2 Anthonij Rupert Premier Trophy. However, the best might not yet have been seen of him.
Legal Counsel has never run over 2000m before but has won over 1800m and he gallantly stayed on in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate despite having gone fast early fractions.
Cosmic Speed has never tried 2000m before but stayed on well for fifth in the King’s Plate.
The Real Prince is trained by Dean Kannemeyer and it is one of the most surprising facts in SA racing that this prolific big race winner is yet to win the Met.
Gladatorian is trained by Stuart Ferrie, who has only had his license for just under three years, but he has vast training experience having worked in the like of Dubai and the USA and he was for many years assistant trainer to the masterful Dennis Drier at Summerveld.
