Snaith compares grey fillies

SIMILARITIES: TRAINER MAKES AN ANALOGY BETWEEN BELA-BELA AND DANCER’S DAUGHTER

Bela-Bela has huge public appeal in the R5million Sun Met celebrated with Mumm (Grade 1) over 2000m at Kenilworth on Saturday. She’s only the 11-1 sixth favourite in the race, but this pretty-as-apicture grey catches the imagination. She’s the only female in the field and she’s hugely talented.

Her trainer Justin Snaith is happy to draw a comparison with another more famous grey filly – his one-time charge Dancer’s Daughter, who dead-heated for first with Pocket Power in the Durban July in 2008 and went on to run a neck second to him in the Met in 2009. He said: “Our bloodstock agent John Freeman was crazy about Bela-Bela at the National Two-Year-Old Sale, and so was my dad Chris and brother Jono – the team who select my horses. When we lost her to the Kalmanson’s Varsfontein Stud in the bidding process John suggested I go right over and ask Susan Rowett if I could train her. I did and the rest is history, as they say. And Bela-Bela’s an absolute darling.”

He said he’d got the same feeling when Dancer’s Daughter came in. “They are very similar horses, In fact I’ve never seen two good fillies so similar. And I train them the same, keep them happy, give them grooms they trust and love – and grooms who love and trust them. Snaith is not a romantic and knows Bela-Bela has a tough task in the Met, with Legal Eagle being so much better weighted under the conditions.

However, he said: “Make no mistake, she’s a very good filly – the best filly in the country – and can beat a good colt any day of the week. She’s doing well and I think she will be in the firing line.”

"I thought she put in the best workout of the day on Thursday last week when all the Met runners had public gallops. “She’s just chilling this week and will have her final sprint-up tomorrow (Thursday) morning. She’s ready,” said Snaith.

Bela-Bela is not the only horse he will be counting on in the Met. He also sends It’s My Turn and Baritone.

He warned against the belief that Bela-Bela is Snaith Racing’s stable elect because “in the Met anything can happen”.

It’s My Turn won last year’s Investec Cape Derby, which was held a week before Met Day, surprising his trainer. “He’s always surprised me,” admitted Snaith. “First in the Derby and then when I took him to Durban in the Daily News 2000, when he shouldn’t have got beaten. He then ran fourth in the Durban July when things didn’t go his way. It’s My Turn has put in two nice preparatory runs in the preliminaries, placing behind Whisky Baron.

“He’s the dark horse in the race,” said Snaith. “He had to have a fetlock operation after finishing fourth in the Durban July last year and his whole programme has been driving towards the Met.

“He’s an uncomplicated fellow with a nice draw and will run his race. He could easily be in the shake-up.

“Baritone is a hard horse to assess and has it all to prove, but if you give Captain America a chance, you’ve got to give him a chance.”

So who does he like most of all his runners? “Ovidio is my best bet in the Cape Stayers and African Night Sky has a good Eachway shout in the $500,000 CTS Mile.”