Sun Met punters can now bet on trainers
So the wide-open betting on next week’s R5m Sun Met at Kenilworth has got you stumped? The answer could be to back your favourite trainer.
UK book makers regularly offer a variety of bets on big sporting events, but it is unusual in SA. However, Worldsportsbetting is offering punters a different chance to make money on the Cape’s most famous race. It has formed a market on who will emerge as the winning trainer in the grade 1 race, making Justin Snaith, who has five runners in the field, favourite at 5-2.
Snaith has made no secret that his main objective during the Cape season is to take top honours in the Met and he has certainly tuned up in the perfect way by saddling two feature winners last weekend: Bishop’s Bounty in the Diadem Stakes and Sir Frenchie in the Sophomore Sprint.
The quintet that will represent the Snaith stable in the Met are Oh Susannah, African Night Sky, Elusive Silva, Krambambuli and Copper Force. The firstnamed is the fancy of my pundits as this Aussie-bred filly will carry bottom weight of 51.5kg. The three-year-old will be ridden by Grant van Niekerk.
Sean Tarry, trainer of Horse of the Year Legal Eagle, is joint second favourite at 15-4, with Candice Bass-Robinson, who will saddle three runners, quoted at the same price.
This year’s Met favours Legal Eagle as the race will be run at weight-for-age, but Tarry’s champion has eased in the betting after a narrow win in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate. He is quoted at 9-2, joint favourite with Bass-Robinson’s principal hope, Marinaresco.
The other two Bass-Robinson runners, Horizon and Nightingale, who both ran well in last season’s Vodacom July, have something to prove after recent flat runs and Horizon would be much better off if the race was a handicap.
With Piere Strydom now booked for the ride on Last Winter, it is no surprise the layers are offering only 5-1 on Dean Kannemeyer taking the rich first prize. Mike de Kock, trainer of Irish-bred Cascapedia and Aussie import Heavenly Blue, can be backed at 6-1.
The Cape Premier Yearling Sale — to be held at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town on Saturday and Sunday — will see the majority of SA’s top owners and trainers converging on the Mother City.
Saturday’s session will start at 6pm and 120 yearlings will come under the hammer of auctioneers John O’Kelly, who arrived in SA on Tuesday, Andrew Miller and Grant Burns.
Klawervlei Stud, the vendors with the biggest draft, will be expecting plenty of interest in lot 18, which is a Captain Al colt out of the seven-time winning Irish mare Gibraltar Blue. This is her third foal. Her second produce, Pillar Of Hercules, is already a two-time winner.
Just two lots later, Maine Chance Farms offers a Var filly who is a full sister to six-time winner Sabadell and a halfsister to another six-time winner, Girl On The Run.
Tarry won seven races with Happy Archer so the champion trainer is sure to run his expert eye over her third foal, a colt by Dynasty, sire of many equine stars including Bela-Bela, Futura, Legislate and Beach Beauty.
Another Dynasty colt consigned by Highlands Stud is named Gold Medal. Judged on pedigree this half-brother to three-time winners Speedy Suzy, Olympic Owen and Fly Philippa could be destined for the winner’s podium.
Later in the first session, Summerhill will offer an interestingly bred colt in Kamadeva, a son of champion miler Capetown Noir and who is a half-brother to grade 1 winner Love Struck.
Some five lots later, the catalogues should be waving for Maine Chance Farms’s Captain Al colt named Prince Of Persia, who is a half-brother to 10-time winner Princess Victoria.
SNAITH HAS MADE NO SECRET HIS MAIN OBJECTIVE DURING THE CAPE SEASON IS TAKING TOP HONOURS IN THE MET