Edict Of Nantes has gone for a walk in the Sun Met betting and since Saturday morning he has drifted from 3-1 joint favourite with Legal Eagle to 11-2 with World Sports Betting. Legal Eagle remains unchanged on 3-1. Betting World has suspended its prices on the race since Saturday.

Edict Of Nantes

The easing of the price just might relate to unconfirmed website reports that Edict Of Nantes may be sold to Hong Kong interests. Mayfair Speculators manager Derek Brugman was unavailable for comment yesterday.

In contrast the Brett Crawford-trained four-year-old is 28-10 with WSB for the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate with Legal Eagle (now owned by Braam van Huyssteen and his partners) 14-10 favourite to win the race for the third successive year.

Captain America is next in the betting at 10-1 along with Last Winter even though the latter is far from certain to run.

In the Paddock Stakes (now sponsored by Cartier) the Mike de Kock-trained Nother Russia has been installed 3-1 favourite with Gimme Six 6-1 and Nightingale 7-1. Last Saturday’s Victress winner Star Express is a 10-1 chance.

By Michael Clower

Anton Marcus could dominate today’s racing at Kenilworth where the four-time champion has six mounts and five of them are favourites.

He starts with Big Pleasure who in fact has drifted in the market for the TAB Telebet Graduation. World Sports Betting opened the Joey Ramsden three-year-old at 22-10 but he has gone out to 28-10 as the money has come for Loadshedder.

The Andre Nel runner has the form to win and is rated to do so but a few of the stable’s runners have performed a bit below par recently (Hoist The Mast in the Southern Cross was a notable exception) and the two due to run last Saturday were both scratched as they were coughing. In the circumstances the vote goes to Big Pleasure.

Anton Marcus (Liesl King)

The once-raced Power Of Peace, on the other hand, has been backed for the mile maiden 35 minutes later and has shortened from 19-10 to 11-10. He also started favourite when only third in a five-runner maiden 19 days ago but is bound to have come on from that. Psychic (4-1) from the Sean Tarry stable, and Parisian Gold (10-1) are close on last time’s run and, together with 9-2 shot Earl Of Warwick, look the dangers.

Perfectproportions steps up to a mile in the Betting World Maiden (race four) and the 12-10 favourite could be another for the former champion. The filly probably has most to fear from Anina (9-2) who went close over a furlong less last time.

Kampala Campari looks the one in race five, the Play Soccer Handicap, and the Nel runner shares 5-2 favouritism with Marcus’s mount The Great One who is certainly good enough to expose any chinks in the armour of his principal opponent.

Big Mistake is hard to oppose in race seven after his fifth from a wide draw in the Lanzerac Ready To Run but watch out for Purple Mountains who has only gone up a kilo for coming back to form last time and is still rated 20 points below the mark he had a year ago.

“He got sore in his joints when he went to Durban, he went stale and we battled with him,” recalls Glen Puller. “We sent him to the farm for a break, did physio on him and he has turned around. He has a nice low rating and he has to have a chance.”

Marcus’s final ride is on 28-10 favourite Still I Rise in race eight. This filly has been a bit a disappointing since making a winning debut and she might be vulnerable under top weight.

Prince Oracy’s last run suggests he is the one to get punters off the mark at 5-2 in the opener but it is significant that Corne Orffer rides newcomer Bwana (7-2) in preference to his two more experienced stable companions . “He is a very nice horse who has been working well although, being a first-timer, he will probably need it a bit,” says Brett Crawford.

By Michael Clower

The four-year-old might have lost his unbeaten record – albeit only by the skin of his teeth – but he lost nothing else in a performance that confirmed his potential star quality.

For much of the race 22-1 shot Milton looked like bringing off another of his now-famous front-running shocks with Gavin Lerena conjuring a bit more each time he looked under threat.

Last Winter

Indeed, when Anthony Delpech started niggling early in the straight, those who made Last Winter 12-10 favourite were preparing to tear up their tickets.

Even 100m out – by which time he was really motoring – he was eight lengths adrift and he was still five lengths down 50m from home. But Milton was tiring as fast as the favourite was quickening and had the line been half a stride later the short head verdict would have gone the other way.

Delpech said: “This is a good horse but I got caught behind horses that weren’t going forward. I never hit him – I would only have unbalanced him in the wind – and he was giving me everything anyway.”

Dean Kannemeyer, yet to win the Met, has typically been weighing up every step of the way as assiduously as a mountaineer nearing the peak of Mount Everest.

He said: “I am still keeping things open but I don’t think he will run in the Queen’s Plate and there is now a great possibility that he will go straight into the Met. I would like him to have won but I was very pleased with the way he finished. He really took off in the last furlong and, bar the winner, he spit the rest of them out.”

For Milton’s owner-trainer though it was one of the biggest wins of a long career handling only horses belonging to himself and wife Christine. It was also a perfect end to a difficult week.

The 82-year-old explained: “I was in hospital on Monday to have stents put into my heart and I then had a reaction to the medication. I might now have another think about going for the Met with Milton but I doubt it even though I’ve got no other races for him. I had been thinking of a Pinnacle in PE !”

Justin Snaith will run Sunshine Sweepstake Victress winner Star Express in both the Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes and the Klawervlei Majorca while Mahal TV Cape Summer Stayers winner Strathdon (owner-bred by the Fosters) will attempt to make it five in a row in the Chairman’s Cup on 6 January.

By Michael Clower

Tap O’Noth and White River, separated by only half a length in Saturday’s Forus Cape Guineas, will have a rematch in the Investec Cape Derby on Met day. And it’s quite possible that third-placed Like A Panther, who has already won over ten furlongs, will throw down the gauntlet to both of them.

Saturday’s Kenilworth Grade 1 triumph was as much a vindication of Vaughan Marshall’s judgement as of his training skills because he predicted that this could be Guineas winner number five when the Captain Al colt made a winning debut eight months earlier.

Marshall said: “He is a very good horse and he has done everything we asked him to do. It would be unfair to any of them to compare him with my previous Guineas winners but he is up there with them.”

Tap O’Noth (Liesl King)

The Milnerton trainer was quick to rule out suggestions of a possible Queen’s Plate challenge, saying: “Slowly, slowly. We will go for the Derby next.”

The Captain Al colt started 4-1 favourite and is the third Grade 1 winner bred by Alec and Gillian Foster. He is also the third Guineas winner for MJ Byleveld whose arm-raised victory salute revealed some of the pressure he had been under to get it right from that dreadful draw.

He got across alright but he was only able to slot in with more than half the field in front of him. “It wasn’t easy and I would like to have been a bit closer,” he admitted. “In the straight it opened up and when I asked him he turned it on a bit too quickly. As a result I might have been in front a little too early but he stayed on like a good horse.”

White River wore ear muffs but no muzzle and indeed there was no repeat of the attempted opposition-biting of the Selangor and Greg Cheyne said: “He is still a bit immature and mentally he is still not quite there either but he has huge potential.”

Brett Crawford added: “He is a Derby horse. He is still a big baby, though, and still learning.”

Interestingly Anton Marcus expressed similar sentiments about Like A Panther, saying: “The penny hasn’t quite dropped yet but it will and I thought this was a good run. He is a staying type.”

The disappointment of the race was Do It Again who was backed from 8-1 to 5-1 second favourite but lost ground at the start and managed only ninth.

Justin Snaith, although delighted with fourth-placed Cot Campbell, shouldered the blame. “I debated whether to give Do It Again another gallop beforehand. I decided to do so and I shouldn’t have. This was a flat run.”

Pack Leader, sixth and only beaten two and a half lengths, was unlucky not to finish significantly closer because he was hampered on three separate occasions in the straight.

Bold Respect (12^th) dropped right back in the closing stages but suspicions that this could be more than just lack of stamina could not be confirmed by the vet who reported that nothing showed up. Undercover Agent (tenth) and Sir Frenchie (last) were both reported unusually fatigued.

By Michael Clower

Despite some doubters, barrier trials are starting to show their worth with two trialists, Good Buddy and Anza-Borrego, filling the first two places on the card opener, a maiden for juveniles, at Scottsville yesterday.

Things may have been different had the heavily supported debutant Divine Path not pulled a shoe on the canter down and failing the vet at the start but as things panned out Good Buddy, who had caught the eye in his trial, proved the stronger getting home by just over a length from Anza-Borrego who had finished third in his trial behind Friday’s night’s Greyville winner, The Bayou.

The Duncan Howells-trained Love Theme looked to be an early Christmas gift for punters after the tribulations of her last start but as it turned out, victory was not quite as straight forward as many would have hoped.

Anton Marcus

Up with the pace throughout, she took the scenic route with Anton Marcus testing both sides of the track before winning rather comfortably. It was a win full of merit and when the penny eventually drops, Love Theme could develop into something useful.

Marcus completed a double for Duncan Howells with a hard-fought victory aboard Gingerbread Man in the sixth. In a small field, Marcus made sure he stayed connected to light-weight pacemaker Bling Swing with Draugluin at his quarters.

Marcus made an early move at the top of the straight but the opposition was far from done. Draugluin challenged but couldn’t get past and Bling Swing and Warfarer refused to go away.

However, Gingerbread Man, who looked a spent force with a furlong to run, suddenly picked it up again and crossed the line going away with ears pricked.

Catching shadows was what the opposition were left to do in the Tack & Ball Gaming Maiden as Shadow Catcher barrelled home for Dennis Bosch. Commentator Sheldon Peters called it a dozen lengths, the official margin was 9.5 – I think I would have gone with Peters.

Ivan and Darryl Moore, grandfather and grandson, teamed up with Ballymaine in the fourth, beating home Root Beer and Star Of Kazan with the apprentice rider not making the most of lightly weighted favourite Making Miracles back in fourth.

The Money Man and Toa Nui were involved in a bit of argy-bargy in the fifth with Toa Nui getting the upper hand in the struggle. The stipendiary stewards took a dim view of proceedings and demoted Toa Nui to second in the boardroom.

Louis Goosen, successful with the giant Haddington on Friday, rounded off his weekend with a double as Shwanky had her consistency rewarded with an almost end-to-end victory in the Gold Circle Facebook Handicap. Gunter Wrogemann was on his bike early and some determined opposition proved no match.

By Andrew Harrison