Champion trainer Justin Snaith knows all about saddling multiple horses in big races, but he has possibly never had such an overwhelming numerical advantage as he will have in the 2026 WSB Cape Town Met.
Snaith sends out no fewer than six of the 11 carded runners in the R5-million, Grade 1 weight-for-age contest at Kenilworth on 31 January.
His arsenal includes the 3.20 ante-post favourite and defending champion Eight On Eighteen, joint second favourite See It Again (4.50) and third favourite Sail The Seas (5.50).
Few pundits are arguing against the likelihood of Snaith landing his fifth Cape Town Met – and his fourth in a row.
The only non-Snaith horse near the top of the betting boards is Dean Kannemeyer’s colt The Real Prince (4.50), who won both the Hollywoodbets Durban July and the recent L’Ormarins King’s Plate with supercharged finishing speed.
Max field of 15
Eight On Eighteen drew gate No 2, alongside stablemate Sail The Seas at 3 – giving those two every chance to grab prominent racing positions just off the pace.
The Real Prince drew in the middle of the field at 6 – often considered to be the plum starting position.
Despite some rumblings of discontent among racing fans over this year’s Met being reduced to a maximum field of 15 due to World Pool international betting constraints (down from 20 previously), only 11 horses stood their ground at the final declaration stage on Tuesday.
It will be one of the smallest Met fields in years, yet it will be one of the strongest. Indeed, the high quality of the leading protagonists possibly scared off some of the more marginal remaining entries.
Late scratchings included Holding Thumbs, Otto Luyken and Olivia’s Way, who’d all attracted mild ante-post betting support in recent weeks.
Three out-of-province raiders take their places: Sean Tarry’s Cosmic Speed (31.00) and Tony Peter’s The Equator (26.00) from the Highveld and Stuart Ferrie’s Gladatorian (16.00) from KwaZulu-Natal.
Race pace is always a major consideration in big races – especially at Kenilworth. The best gallopers need a brisk early tempo to show their true ability and Snaith will be hyper-alert to this in terms of his fast finishers Eight On Eighteen and See It Again.
His charge Okavango (16.00) might end up being a sacrificial lamb on the altar of a good cruising speed.
Met field:
(no. & draw, name, weight, MR, equipment, jockey, trainer)
1 Cosmic Speed 59.5 124 A Gavin Lerena Sean Tarry
2 Eight On Eighteen 59.5 129 A Richard Fourie Justin Snaith
3 Sail The Seas 59.5 127 A Muzi Yeni Justin Snaith
4 Gladatorian 60 127 TA Sean Veale Stuart Ferrie
5 Garrix 59.5 123 A Keagan de Melo Piet / Elbert Steyn
6 The Real Prince 60 128 A Craig Zackey Dean Kannemeyer
7 Legal Counsel 59.5 116 A Aldo Domeyer Justin Snaith
8 Native Ruler 59.5 119 A Juan Paul v’d Merwe Justin Snaith
9 The Equator (IRE) 60 117 TBA Rene Piechulek Tony Peter
10 See It Again 60 127 A Andrew Fortune Justin Snaith
11 Okavango 59.5 120 A Callan Murray Justin Snaith
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