Last Winter’s odds slashed

LAST WINTER was yesterday slashed from 20-1 to 8-1 third favourite for the Sun Met following his impressive performance in the Forus Premier Trophy at Kenilworth on Saturday.

The four-year-old might have lost his unbeaten record 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 frontrunning shocks with Gavin Lerena conjuring a bit more each time he looked under threat.

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 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.

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 he was keeping things open but he did not think he would run in the Queen’s Plate and there was now a great possibility that he would go straight into the Met.

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.

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 !”