Justin Snaith mulls over the Met

Justin Snaith is a keen fan of most sports and loves to use analogies to other sporting codes when talking about his racehorses.

With the World Sports Betting Cape Town Met, South Africa’s champion trainer turns to rugby to explain his decision to race promising three-year-old Eight On Eighteen in a race that’s seldom been a happy hunting ground for young horses.

“It’s like Rassie Erasmus selecting a young guy just out of school – Canan Moodie or Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu – for the Boks. It works out if they’ve got the talent,” says Snaith.

He should know. In the past 20 years, the only three-year-old winner of the Met was Oh Susannah in 2018 – trained by him.

Three in a row for Snaith?

Snaith admits being “a little nervous but also excited” to see how Eight On Eighteen fares against the best older horses in the country.

“He is still very young, but he is special. It’s the first time he’s tried the 2000m distance but there’s nothing to suggest he won’t get the trip.”

Punters have backed Eight On Eighteen into 3-1 favouritism and Snaith agrees that he is the pick of the five horses he will saddle for the 163rd running of Cape Town’s premier horse race, a R5-million, Grade 1 contest at Kenilworth.

The champ is going for his fourth Met win overall and his third in a row – after Jet Dark in 2023 and Double Superlative in 2024.

Like any devoted trainer, Snaith has a compelling case to present for each of his four other Met candidates.

“Royal Aussie (40-1) is the fastest horse in the race. The trip is a bit of a stretch and he’ll need to find cover, especially if its windy – just like the cyclists do in the Tour de France.” The sporting comparison again.

In-form Future Swing (14-1) is “the dark horse of the race”, with “the right jockey in Grant van Niekerk and the right draw at 4”.

Enigmatic Pacaya (66-1) opened eyes with his finishing speed last time out and Snaith would love to see South Africa’s only female jockey Rachel Venniker win a Grade 1 race on his charge. Magic Verse (25-1) is on a rapid improvement trajectory and, “I just don’t yet know what his limit is!”

Emotional investment

All the Snaith Met runners are owned by rich racing personalities and, like any great trainer, he simply cannot give preferential treatment to any particular horse in his care.

Indeed, it’s never easy dealing with scores of important people heavily emotionally invested in their “babies”.

Snaith manages to keep them all (reasonably) on side with “a lot of work and the strongest backroom team any racing stable has ever had”. It’s Rassie’s formula, Snaith chuckles.

One of his famous patrons is golfing legend Gary Player, part-owner of Double Grand Slam, a runner in another Grade 1 event on Met day, the Maine Chance Farms Majorca Stakes.

The trainer reckons this fittingly named filly is his yard’s best bet on the card.

“She’s a beautiful filly! We have a lot of confidence she’ll win on Saturday and go on to have a sensational year.”

Multiple factors at play

Snaith is partial to a round of golf himself and reckons his handicap in the teens could be much lower if much of his time wasn’t taken up playing polo – at which he’s also pretty handy.

Whatever sport you care to name, though, doesn’t have as much tactical planning as racing. The ace conditioner gives away nothing about his five-horse Met strategy ahead of the big day, saying only that multiple factors will be considered.

“The draw could play a big part; the weather, maybe a southeaster – or not; the pace could be on or off. On King’s Plate Day there was bunching on the turn and into the straight…”

Casting a suspicious eye down the Kenilworth turf, he adds, “It looks like they’ve narrowed the track…”

The thinking never stops.