The Turffontein Inside track stages a ten race meeting tomorrow and the Sun Met will form the last leg of the Pick 6.

Oh Susanna is as well as she was if not better than when wining last year and will prefer racing against males as her own gender do not provide a strong enough pace or opposition for her. She has an ideal draw and the pace should be on with three front runners in Milton, Head Honcho and Kampala Campari in the race. Do It Again has proved his class and is only getting better so is going to be hard to beat but he does have to concede 2,5kg to Oh Susanna, who is built like a colt.

Eyes Wide Open won the Cape Derby over course and distance a year ago, beating Do It Again, and is cherry ripe for the first time since. However, Do It Again was unlucky back then, having had to come from last in a race run at a crawl, and he has improved a lot since. Furthermore, Eyes Wide Open has a tricky draw of nine for one who will need to be handy in order to make the most of his resolute finish. However, he could sneak into the first three at long odds with there being question marks hanging over some of the others’ heads. Legal Eagle will have to put a below par run in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate behind him. However, two of his best career runs, in the SA Derby and the Jubilee Handicap, were when running on from the tail of the field and it looks likely that those tactics are going to be employed.

Head Honcho has a huge stride and has improved dramatically this season so is the dark horse although his wide draw will make it tough, especially as he is a front runner in a field with two other front-runners involved. Rainbow Bridge is full of class and his exceptional turn of foot was not quite there in the Queen’s Plate. He was found to have heat on a joint afterwards which could have been an explanation. If at his soundest this time it could be a different story but against him is his temperament as there is a chance he will boil over due to all the noise and activity around the course. Made To Conquer has class and is interesting with blinkers on. He is the hardest of the others to ignore.

The PA starts with a 1200m Maiden and Sea Air should get punters through from a good draw.

The first leg of the Pick 6 over 1800m is tough despite being an Assessment Plate in which I Like It is well in at the weights on official merit ratings. She can be included but the form of her Grade 3 Fillies Mile second has not stood up and she might be overrated. Fortuna Road is tipped to win as she should stay the trip and is progressing nicely and she can go to the front in a race which lacks pace. Animal Lover can also be included as one who has gone close over 2000m at this course before.

Pilgrim’s Progress is a banker consideration in the fifth over 3000m being drawn in pole with a nice galloping weight.

In the sixth over 1450m the distance specialist Rouge Allure is well drawn, but Strawberry Pavlova and Aurelia Cotta will likely be doing good work late.

In the seventh over 1450m Orapa enjoys this course and distance and has the ability to win from a good draw. However, Captain Tortuga is an up and coming sort who will be a threat from pole position. However, the breathing noises he makes are a concern and punters should consider going wide.

In the last leg of the Jackpot, the Johan Jane van Vuuren pair of Torrey Pines and Shezashiningstar look set to fight it out, although it is another one to possibly go wide in.

By David Thiselton

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

The CTS 1200 and CTS 1600, to be run at the Sun Met meeting on Saturday, are the two richest races in South Africa with stakes of US$500,000 apiece and this year there are stand out competitors in both events.

Cirillo looks to be the meeting banker in the CTS 1200. Van Halen beat him easily in the Grade 1 Allan Robertson over this trip at Scottsville last year but that was only after he had completely taken him out when they went for the same gap. Cirillo has since only run in one sprint, romping home in his maiden over 1160m. However, he showed a lot of pace when winning the R2,5 million Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes over 1400m. Meanwhile, Van Halen has not had a good time of it in Cape Town, although with first time blinkers on last time he did run an improved race in the Needforspeedsprint over 1000m where he had to give weight to the field. If bouncing back to his best he could be the chief danger.

Some regarded CTS 1600 favourite One World’s third place finish in the Cape Guineas, his first defeat in his sixth start, as a below par run. However, the winner Soqrat came out and only just failed in an ultra strong L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate. The runner up Twist Of Fate then showed just what a big engine he has when not settling too well but still winning the Grade 3 Politician Stakes over 1800m going away despite giving lumps of weight away. His half-a-length beating of One World in the Cape Guineas was likely no fluke and he could repeat the dose.

However, Bernard Fayd’Herbe will not be aboard this time, although he has been replaced by a champion jockey in S’Manga Khumalo. A dark horse in this race is Mr Greenlight, who has a fine turn of foot and is improving rapidly. Silvano’s Pride, who finished runner up in the Cape Fillies Guineas, will ensure a good pace and as an ever improving daughter of Silvano could hold on for a place. Majestic Mozart is an immature sort who is also improving all the time and having not been disgraced in the Cape Guineas, where he was beaten 4,25 lengths into fifth, he could also earn.

By David Thiselton

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

Justin Snaith said his huge string for Sun Met day had their races carefully chosen and suitable jockeys had been handpicked.

He has four runners in the Met, Do It Again, Oh Susanna, Made To Conquer and Doublemint and said they were all so well he would have liked the race to have been tomorrow.

In the eyes of many the defending champion Oh Susanna had tended to race a bit strongly in her last three races, including when winning from the front in the Grade 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes.

However, Snaith disagreed.

He said, “She didn’t over race at all last time, that was the plan. We raced her in ear muffs and that seemed to help. This is the best I have had her for a year.”

Bernard Fayd’Herbe will ride her for the first time since her maiden win in April 2017.

Snaith said, “Bernard has a good record on our fillies. He has had Group 1 wins for us on the like of Ebony Flyer, Snowdance and Dancer’s Daughter.” Fayd’Herbe has won the Met three times, twice on Pocket Power and on Futura.

L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate winner Do It Again is a worthy favourite as he is just getting better and better in the same way his sire Twice Over did as a racehorse. He will appreciate this step up in trip and will attempt to give Richard Fourie his first Met win.

Made To Conquer has a tough task at the weights with Do It Again on Vodacom Durban July form and with Head Honcho on Premier Trophy form. However, he is an impressive galloper and in a late declaration the blinkers have been fitted. He is one of the dark horses from draw four with S’manga Khumalo up.

The Peninsula winner Doublemint is also by Twice Over so will be improving, but he has a tough task at the weights.

In the Grade 1 Betting World Cape Flying Championship Snaith regards Kasimir as one of the yards better runners on the day as he has come on from his last run. This gelding has a big action and prefers 1200m but will enjoy the tough 1000m if they go fast enough and there does look to be a lot of pace in the race.

Defending champion Sergeant Hardy was disappointing last time but will strip much fitter. His high draw is against him due to his habit of jumping to the left. Snaith is going to leave it to the jockey and added, “Mark Khan is the right jockey, he has been lucky for us.”

He was hoping Sir Frenchie could produce his usual strong finish and run into the places.

Snaith said he had defending champion Snowdance as well as she was last year for the Grade 1 Bidvest Majorca and believed it would take “a top, top filly to beat her.” He was impressed by Snowdance’s run in the Queen’s Plate under the circumstances in which she had chased a strong pace “flat out” throughout and was still alongside some top class males 200m out. She was only beaten 5,1 lengths and will now have a jockey who knows her well, Richard Fourie, back aboard, albeit from a tough draw. Snaith said he did not want to take anything away from the Cape Fillies Guineas winner Front And Centre, but believed it had not been a strong renewal of that race, whereas Snowdance and Lady In Black were both proven at the highest level.

His other Majorca runner Miyabi Gold will be fitted with a cross noseband to help her breathe.

In The Grade 1 Cape Derby he has three runners. He said Bunker Hunt was a thick-skinned horse who would not be affected by the incident in the Politician Stakes where he dislodged Fourie. This horse has the X-factor and he believed he would be at his best over this trip. Belgarion is still immature but has plenty of scope and is improving all the time, so he believes he will beat those who finished around him in the Politician Stakes, where he ran on well for third. Knights Templar has ability but is still immature and Snaith said he had to learn to race at this level.

He runs Cape Fillies Guineas runner up Silvano’s Pride in the CTS 1600. She is a strong horse to hold, so only knows one way of running, to go flat out. She will be ridden accordingly and Snaith hoped she could hold on for a place. He added she was always improving.

Snaith regarded Cirillo as hard to beat in the CTS 1200 and said it was wide open beyond him. Of his four he said Seven Seas “on prepping form and current form” would be his pick as the other three were all backward types.

Snaith believed he had a particularly strong hand in the Grade 2 New Turf Carriers Stayers over 2800m. Strathdon will be a huge runner at the weights and Snaith said he had prepped well so would be hard to beat. However, he reckoned Magnificent Seven would be the horse to beat if he stayed the trip. Elusive Silva had a problem with his feet which had been sorted out and he would definitely enjoy the trip. He said Ovidio would likely need the run.

Snaith concluded by saying all of his other runners on the day would be competitive.

By David Thiselton