Cursed luck for Bless My Stars sees favourite cut again

Four-year-old colt See It Again, trained by racing legend Michael Roberts, will start Saturday’s Cape Town Met as possibly the shortest-priced runner in the 150-year history of the illustrious race.

Bookmakers shaved the KwaZulu-Natal-based star by a whole point in the betting – from 5-10 to 4-10 – following the scratching of rival Bless My Stars this week.

The filly, from the Highveld yard of trainer Sean Tarry, was 8-1 at the time of her withdrawal.

Bless My Stars was among the few competitors that experts gave any chance of challenging See It Again in the Grade 1 R2-million showpiece. However, the top-class filly – third in the 2023 Durban July – was prevented from leaving for Cape Town by the State Vet and a last-minute prohibition on horse movements following a local African horse sickness scare.

Sean Tarry horses

This leaves just 12 starters for the prestigious event – with the commanding form of See It Again having frightened off many a potential challenger.

All horses due to be floated from Randjesfontein to Western Cape for that province’s biggest annual race day had to be scratched. However, Highveld raiders from the Turffontein and Vaal training centres were not affected.

Four Tarry horses fell foul of the ban, though another four on the Met day card remain unaffected as they were already in Cape Town, having campaigned there in recent weeks. Still in the running are well-fancied Princess Calla (Majorca Stakes), Thunderstruck (Cape Flying Championship), Tail Of The Comet (Gold Rush) and Nebraas (Western Cape Stayers).

With Bless My Stars out of the Met picture, some might have expected other runners to shorten slightly in the betting; instead, they remained largely becalmed in the odds or drifted slightly.

Minor price movements in the past week have been about Justin Snaith-trained Mucho Dinero and Piet Botha charge Montien, who have dropped from 17-1 to 12-1 and from 40-1 to 28-1 respectively.

Second-favourite Pacaya, one of four Snaith hopefuls, has hovered around 8-1 for some time.

BETTING

Met:

4-10 See It Again
8-1 Pacaya
12-1 Mucho Dinero
14-1 Royal Aussie
25-1 Double Superlative
28-1 Montien
33-1 Without Question, Rascallion
40-1 Al Muthana
50-1 Sugar Mountain
66-1 Waterberry Lane, Anfields Rocket

Majorca Stakes:

17-10 Princess Calla
28-10 Beach Bomb
11-2 Red Palace
12-1 Happy Chance, Saartjie
16-1 and upwards the others

Cape Flying Championships:

16-10 Isivunguvungu
5-2 Thunderstruck
11-2 Dyce
12-1 Surjay
13-1 Bereave
16-1 and upwards the others