Full field for the Met

THE field for this year’s Sun Met will be the biggest since Pas de Quoi proved too good for his 19 rivals back in 1994assuming all 20 declared stand their ground in Saturday week’s R5 million highlight.

In fact 22 were declared yesterday morning but Mambo Mime and Deo Juvente failed to make the cut. Legal Eagle, runner-up in each of the last two runnings under a 2kg Grade 1-winning penalty, will have no such handicap this time as the race is being run on strict weight-forage terms.

Legal Eagle

In recent days Legal Eagle has been challenged for favouritism by Marinaresco – fifth 12 months ago – and Last Winter whose trainer Dean Kannemeyer desperately wants to fill one of the few gaps in his illustrious CV.

The same applies to Justin Snaith and his father Chris, and the family’s huge racing operation accounts for a quarter of the field. They have 35 runners and are represented in all but one of the 13 races.

Last year Justin declared 40 horses when he won three races while the previous year he declared 36 and equalled the world record for the number of winners on the same card with eight. Other trainers going into battle with big armadas are Candice Bass-Robinson (29), Joey Ramsden (24) and Brett Crawford (19).

The two CTS $500 000 races have proved understandably popular – 25 were declared for the 1 200m event and two more for the mile race.

They have been whittled down to 20 apiece but only 16 will go to post in the mile. The draws for these two and the four Grade 1s will take place in Cape Town’s V & A Waterfront tomorrow afternoon.

At the time of writing most bookmakers had still to update their prices but the Snaith-trained Fillies Guineas winner Snowdance shortened to a scarcely credible 1-3 for the Klawervlei Majorca yesterday morning.

Vaughan Marshall’s Cape Guineas winner Tap O’Noth is expected to start favourite for the Investec Cape Derby even though Peninsula Handicap winner Eyes Wide Open is rated 2kg better.