The sprinters usually have the upper hand, but a notable recent exception was the 2010 winner Past Master, who went on to win the Met. The great Pocket Power finished second in the Diadem on two occasions, in 2006 and 2008, and in the first of these occasions he stormed through late and failed by only a short-head. Three weeks later he won the first of his four successive Queen’s Plates and a month after that won the first of his three successive Mets. Futura as a Gr 1 winner is the most eyecatching of the classic types involved in Saturday’s race and is  joined by a classy pair of females in Hammie’s Hooker and Priceless Jewel as well as by the former Selangor winner De Kock and the Green Point Stakes runner up Ashton Park. The sprinters are headed by three Gr 1 winners, Tsogo Sun Medallion victor Captain Of All, Computaform Sprint hero Copper Parade, and Mercury Sprint heroine Fly By Night. Other notable sprinters are the three-year-old Gr 2 Stronach Group Racing Merchants winner Trip To Heaven, the Gr 2 Cape Merchants winner Tevez and the up and coming Silicone Valley.

Hammie’s Hooker

Hammie’s Hooker was rated by jockey Bernard Fayd’Herbe as the horse he was most looking forward to riding this season as she is set for Gr 1 glory now that her nemesis Beach Beauty has retired. This five-year-old Mike Bass-trained Trippi mare has exceptional speed and finished just 0,85 lengths back in the Cape Merchants over course and distance last time out. She is now 5kg better off so has an outstanding chance of winning. Fayd’Herbe will be aboard Futura, whom he has been booked to ride in the Met, and Hammie’s Hooker will be ridden by Aldo Domeyer. Futura has an exceptional turn of foot and is full of class, so will be doing his best work late. He will likely be outpaced early but over this tough 1200m winners can come from way off the pace, so he can’t be written off. Priceless Jewel has won a Listed and a Gr 3 over this 1200m course and distance. She has more than seven lengths to make up on Fly By Night from her last outing in the Gr 2 Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m, but she appears to be a sort that comes on quickly so she could well improve enough on that race to be a factor here with Greg Cheyne aboard. De Kock makes no appeal here after lacklustre performances in his last two starts. A forte of Mike Bass’s is his ability to bring horses into their own as they get older and two cases in point in this race are Fly By Night and Ashton Park, who are now both five-year-olds. Ashton Park finished second to Legislate in the Green Point, which was run in course record time, despite running three wide. All six of his victories have been over 1400m so he is interesting tried over this slightly shorter trip with Richard Fourie aboard.

Fly By Night

The tall Jet Master mare Fly By Night ran just a head behind the brilliant Via Africa in the SA Fillies Sprint and has proved that was no fluke by winning all three of her sprints since. She is a huge runner here and stable jockey Grant van Niekerk replaces Fayd’Herbe. Captain Of All has tremendous early pace and will have come on a lot from his last start, which was his first outing in over a year and which he needed badly. Trip To Heaven was under sufferance when winning the Merchants at Turffontein so is consequently merit rated 109. He produced a fantastic finish from off the pace that day and will likely be suited by this tough 1200m. Port Elizabeth raider Copper Parade is a seven-year-old but is 5,5kg better off with Tevez for a 3,35 length beating in the Merchants and that was his first outing since going down by just 0,5 lengths to Fly By Night in the Mercury Sprint. He has a devastating turn of foot and appreciates a strong pace, which he should get with the like of Captain Of All in the race. Tevez comes from off the pace, so will never win by far, and he could still be a big runner here, despite being up against it with a couple of others on paper. Silicone Valley has only had three starts, despite being a four-year-old, so could still be anything, although he will still need vast improvement on his last start, which yielded a comfortable victory in a MR 78 handicap. Happy Forever had a good 2013/2014 season but is now six-years-old and hasn’t been firing this season. The West Is Wide could earn if having one of his going days, although his record in Graded races does not make good reading. Hammie’s Hooker could be the one to side with and she could beat her stablemate Fly By Night. Copper Parade is tipped to follow them home and Trip To Heaven and Tevez could be next best. Pictures: Liesl King

Yogas Govender (Nkosi Hlophe)

Aldo Domeyer’s mount started odds-on last time and she looked all over the winner when she cruised to the front 300m out. But in the last half furlong she went backwards and finished an expensive fourth.“I’d slap a pair of blinkers on her,” said James Goodman, recommending her as one to follow on Winning Ways. But she runs without them here.

“I can’t put blinkers on because she is too hot,” says Yogas Govender. “What happened last time was that she went too soon. There was a strong headwind and that can stop trains. She has been doing well at home and if she doesn’t win this I will be very confused.”

She opened 13-10 with Betting World yesterday when the bookmakers were expecting money for Eric Sands’ newcomer Winter Hazel (18-10). The TAB sheet favourite at 3-1 was Molly’s Chambers who is 10-1 with Betting World and who again wears a pacifier. “She’s a bit hot,” Piet Steyn explains. “But she is small and I will be happy if she runs a place.”

Secret Society also has losses to recover half an hour later after starting hot favourite for her last two races only to be beaten into third on each occasion. On her most recent run her rider reported that she was not striding out freely and the course vet said that she was fatigued after the race.

“I couldn’t find anything wrong and she has been doing well at home,” is Brett Crawford’s encouraging comment. She is again favourite (at 14-10) and probably has most to fear from Black Belvedere (33-10) and 5-2 chance Elen Luydogg whose rider reported that she kept changing stride in last month’s race.

Crawford’s 7-2 shot Beaufort Sea is the obvious one in race three but watch out for Imibala even though he has a terrible draw. So far he has shown little of the ability of his dam Dancer’s Daughter but he wears blinkers for the first time here.

“He needs them and he is a different horse with them on at home,” reports Justin Snaith. No Resistance should confirm last time’s placings with Kings Advisor who is drawn widest of all.

Richard Fourie rides 5-1 chance Lotus Lily Lake for Snaith in the next but Sean Cormack’s mount Tour De Var (9-2) is marginally preferred. However Western Movie is worth bearing in mind each way at 8-1 as Carl Burger is convinced that changing tactics has improved the gelding – “He used to make the running but the way we are riding him now he would even get an extra 200m.”

Silver Salver is 3-1 favourite after making most of the running to win his first race for six months. However he has been raised 3kg for that and Vincente (4-1) has gone up 1.5kg for winning by a short head. Both should run well but the extra may just tip the scales against them.

Glen Hatt partnered the colt in all his eight races last season, winning the Champions Cup and finishing third in the Vodacom Durban July, but his right wrist is taking much longer to come good than the doctors anticipated when they operated on it in July.

Hatt said: “They told me five months but, while I will be back in action later in the season, I am not even near riding a horse yet and I have now told people that I won’t be back during the rest of the Cape season.

“In fact I have even had to back off the physiotherapy that I was doing. It’s disappointing and frustrating but the one thing I can’t afford to do is return too soon. My biggest problem is boredom as I can’t do anything that is going to put a strain on the wrist.”

Fayd’Herbe, who won two Mets on Pocket Power, has also been booked for the four-year-old in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, a race he has won four times. He will also ride him in the Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Brett Crawford acknowledges that the 1 200m trip is too short but said: “Futura is a horse who likes to run and its seven weeks from the Green Point to the Queen’s Plate, and there is nothing like a good hard race to bring them on.”

Crawford also runs Met outsider De Kock (Corne Orffer) in Saturday’s race. It will be the four-year-old’s first outing since being gelded.

Cold As Ice, who had to be withdrawn from the Avontuur Fillies Guineas after breaking through the pens, drops back to 1 100m for the Laisserfaire Stakes on the same card while the 1 200m course record holder Generalissimo goes over 200m less in the Capetown Noir Need For Speed Sprint.

It is fortunately not a complex break and he still has hopes of being back in time for the J&B Met on January 31, in which he is due to ride the ruling second favourite Majmu.

Delpech’s mount Fear Not “flipped over” in the starting stalls and his leg then became jammed in the back gate.

The force from the horse broke the leg and Delpech had to be extracted from the situation by the handlers.

The leg has a “straight break” and did not require surgery.

A plaster cast will assist the healing process and Delpech will be pursuing every known method that can potentially speed up this process.

A decompression chamber is one such option he will be visiting.

He said, “I have very good people around me and we will work hard to have it healed in time for the Met.”

Delpech has an unbeaten partnership with the brilliant Majmu, who is a robust Australian-bred three-year-old grey trained by the peerless Mike de Kock. She is the most exciting filly seen in the country since Igugu, on whom Delpech won the Met in 2012, so he will definitely not want to miss the ride.

It was reminiscent of his effort in last season’s Queen’s Plate when his J & B Met price tumbled from 20-1 to 7-1. This time it occasioned only a ripple in the market – 50-1 to 33-1 with Betting World – but seemingly there is a lot more to come.

“I am amazed he can run second because it’s been a long comeback – he had to be box-rested for two months – and he is still only half the horse,” said Justin Snaith. “Maybe the Queen’s Plate next. It could be a nice race before the Met.”

Vanessa Harrison’s Jet Aglow, who led over a furlong out, held on by a diminishing half length and will now attempt to step up on last season’s third in the Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes on January 10.

Coltrane (Liesl King)

But Sean Cormack and Dennis Drier were every bit as excited about Seventh Plain who made a winning debut in the Polar Ice Cream Maiden Juvenile and will go for the Listed race on Met day.

Cormack said: “I haven’t ridden a two-year-old like this for a very long time. He has class written all over him and he is a classic horse in the making.”

Lanner Falcon ran out a convincing winner under a hands-and-heels Grant van Niekerk in the Racing.It’s A Rush Conditions Plate but Mike Bass promptly ruled out Paddock Stakes suggestions for Gaynor Rupert’s homebred.

He explained: “She doesn’t really get that far. She is a sprinter-miler and I think I will go for the Freightmore Sceptre Stakes (Jan 17) and the Klawervlei Majorca a fortnight later.”

But Jet Belle, who ran on well into fifth, will go for the Paddock Stakes. She has been marked out from 66-1 to 100-1 for the Met.

Glen Kotzen said: “She pulled up distressed after her last run in Jo’burg and we have only had her back three weeks. We wanted to give her a nice soft run here to see where we are going with her.”

Coltrane goes for the J & Jet Stayers after running out a shock 25-1 winner of the Grandwest Cape Summer Stayers under Anthony Delpech. The five-year-old finished tailed off on his last start and the stipes held a lengthy inquiry into the improved form.

Ramsden said: “We spent a lot of money and found a couple of little things but nothing that was either conclusive or definitive. I gave him a week or two off but I was still in two minds about running him and I told Anthony to drop him out and let him have fun. The Met day race is too far for him but he has to run in it after this.”

Despite the best efforts of his trainers Hassen Adams failed to get a winner. But, in truth, the man who an increasing proportion of the population now calls Burger King was the winner. His efforts, and those of his various teams, attracted a whole new and highly cosmopolitan crowd. Many of them went home realising that racing has a lot more to offer than simply a free hamburger.