Double Superlative delivers a 33-1 Met shock

Double Superlative was the 33-1 shock winner of the 2024 WSB Cape Town Met at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Cape Town trainer Justin Snaith performed a phenomenal training feat to get the colt back to the pinnacle of the racing game following a career-threatening injury in 2022.

Visiting British jockey Daniel Muscutt carried the cyclamen and green silks of owner Nick Jonsson to victory – ironically the same colours that the vast majority of punters around the country had been hoping to see winning with red-hot 4-10 favourite See It Again.

The latter, the highest-rated horse in South Africa and trained by Michael Roberts, did not run to his best ability, failing to quicken as smartly usual and only managing fourth place in the Grade 1 R2-million contest over 2000m.

The runner up, Vaughan Marshall-trained Rascallion (12-1), made a brave bid to steal the race from the front under Bernard Fayd’Herbe – leading for most of the journey but going down to Double Superlative by 0.40 lengths in the last gasp of a thrilling finish.

In third place, running on steadily from midfield under South Africa’s sole female jockey Rachel Venniker, was yet another Jonsson horse in pink and green, Without Question (50-1).

Cape Racing Gold Rush

Jonsson therefore collected prize money for three of the first four finishers – but that haul paled into insignificance compared with the R5-million he pocketed in the previous race on the day when his Snaith-trained three-year-old gelding Rapidash won the Cape Racing Gold Rush, a restricted sale and slot-based race.

Jonsson paid fulsome tribute to the Snaith team for persevering with Double Superlative “when everyone else said he was finished and would never run again”.

The two main supporting features on Met day went the way of raiders from the Highveld.

The Grade 1 City of Cape Town Majorca Stakes put to rest all debate about the identity of the best female galloper in the country. Six-year-old Princess Calla, reigning Equus Horse of the year, dispatched a strong field with almost contemptuous ease over the 1600m.

Shrugging off criticism in some quarters about his tactics on Princess Calla three weeks ago in the Paddock Stakes, when the Sean Tarry-trained mare finished runner-up to three-year-old Beach Bomb, jockey Richard Fourie delivered a masterclass.

Title-chasing Fourie positioned the mare comfortably in midfield – with plenty of runners ahead of him to take aim at in the straight. She tracked to the outside rail and breezed past all and sundry to win by 3.25 lengths easing up.

Dyce (5-2), from Lucky Houdalakis’s Vaal training yard, laid down a claim to be the nation’s supreme sprinter by streaking away from his opponents in the 1000m Grade 1 Cape Flying Championship. The 18-10 favourite Thunderstruck simply couldn’t match Dyce’s big stride at the death. Ante-post favourite and current Champion Sprinter Isivunguvungu was scratched in the preliminaries.