The female of the species has won four of the last nine runnings of the Sun Met- incredible when you consider how few of them run – and there is a growing feeling behind the brick walls of Snaith Racing that last year’s winner Oh Susanna is in with a real chance of a repeat.

Last Saturday’s blowing-the-house-down gallop might not have moved the bookmakers all that much – Bernard Fayd’Herbe’s mount has shortened little more than a point to 13-2 and 7-1 – but it has hardened the conviction of her trainer that the Horse of the Year will really put it up to hot favourite and stable companion Do It Again.

“If he wants to win the Met he is going to have to beat Oh Susanna. That’s the way I feel,” says Justin Snaith. “Since her win last year this is the best I have had her. In fact I don’t think I had her as well for last year’s Met as she is now.

“But, that said, it is always hard to beat Do It Again. He has done more than the other horses – he has won the July and the Queen’s Plate – and so you have got to give him the benefit of any doubt about his being the better. Certainly he deserves to be favourite.”

Snaith has booked former champion S’Manga Khumalo for 16-1 shot Made To Conquer, second in both the July and last month’s Premier Trophy. “He would have run in the New Turf Carriers Stayers but for putting up an incredible gallop. We put blinkers on, he was a different horse and it was one of our top three gallops of the season. He will wear them again on Saturday and he always runs consistently well.”

The fourth runner from the all-powerful Philippi yard is Piere Strydom’s mount Doublemint (22-1) who won the Peninsula Handicap on Queen’s Plate day. But the colt’s trainer has mixed feelings about the horse’s presence in the line-up. “He is a lot better than his rating suggests and he has accomplished more too, winning the Winter Derby as well as the Peninsula. I thought he would be my July horse but that may have to go out of the window if he runs a big race on Saturday. Like the other three, he is primed and ready.” Seemingly one of them will be on standby to make it a good gallop if none of the expected front-runners takes it up. “It is going to be a tough race,” acknowledges the champion trainer. “But we also want it to be a strong-run race and I am going to ensure that it is.”

By Michael Clower