OFF THE RECORD #108

See It Again’s Second Chance At The Gates
Malan du Toit And The Patient Art Of Rebuilding Trust

Above: Malan du Toit with See It Again (image: supplied).

Last Saturday, when Justin Snaith’s See It Again (Twice Over) strode to the start with purpose and won the WSB Cape Town Met with authority, the performance carried the fingerprints of a man who rarely seeks the spotlight. Horse behaviour consultant Malan du Toit was not responsible for specific exercise programmes, feed and heart rate monitoring, rather with understanding a horse that had lost his earlier composure, and teaching him how to cope again.

Malan had broken in See It Again as a yearling back in 2020, a task completed routinely and professionally. In December last year, he found himself working with the gelding again, this time at his most vulnerable. What followed was not a quick fix or a gimmick, but a painstaking return to first principles.

See It Again first crossed Malan’s path at Ridgemont Highlands, where owner Nic Jonsson had his yearlings stabled at the time. Here called: “See It Again was one of many yearlings I’d worked with in 2020. I remember him as a nice, well-behaved young horse with a good attitude. Over the years, however, he picked up some bad habits. While he never lost his gentle demeanour in the stable yard, his behaviour at the starting gates became uncontrollable.”

See It Again as a yearling | Malan Du Toit

Malan explained that See It Again’s original trainer, Michael Roberts, sought his assistance in November 2025, after the gelding had twice refused to load for engagements in October and early November. Those incidents effectively derailed Roberts’ plans to campaign him in the Betway Summer Cup. “I wasn’t able to help at the time because I was fully booked and about to go on vacation,” said Malan. “More importantly, I knew that a quick crash course ahead of the Summer Cup would not have been sufficient to address See It Again’s issues.”

In the weeks that followed, See It Again was transferred to Justin Snaith’s yard at Philippi, Cape Town, and Malan was available when Snaith soon made a similar request.

Above: Malan du Toit with Jackson Lumkwana after the WSB Cape Town Met (image: supplied)

As part of his assessment, Malan conducted additional background research to establish where See It Again’s issues had first taken root. He recalled an earlier warning sign: “A few years ago, my assistant Madoda Lumkwana (“Jackson”) and I were loading other horses for a race in Cape Town when we noticed that See It Again was behaving unusually, acting up a bit. I said to Jackson, ‘There’s trouble coming with this one,’ and he agreed.”

Malan subsequently established that the problems stemmed from an earlier incident at the starting gates, where See It Again received an unintentional blow to the head while being loaded.

“It appears that the handler walking him into the pens, accidentally struck him on the head with an elbow while tightening the reins to climb onto the stall partitioning. Unfortunately, the horse was left with the lasting, negative emotion that the starting gates are not a safe and happy place – triggering an evasive response every time he approached the pens after that.”

Over time, Malan noted, See It Again also learned how strong he was, and that his behaviour could help him to avoid entering the starting stalls. “He started retreating, with the handler in tow. At times he would rear up on his hind legs, always difficult to manage. On other occasions he’d stand sideways, parallel to the stalls, with either shoulder facing the gates, and simply refuse to turn and walk in. He had acquired a full repertoire of avoidance responses.”

Rising seven, See It Again presented a unique challenge as an older horse, and Malan explained: “Horses learn fastest when they are young, before they figure out resistance. If you sense there may be a problem, it’s important to act immediately. Young horses are like children­ – they need discipline. Boundaries and accountability must be established early. You want to educate them young, not repair them later. As the saying goes, as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.”

Malan had to dismantle the habits that had kept See It Again on the sidelines for the first half of the 2025/26 season. He was acting as he pleased, but had to be taught willing compliance. He had crossed the boundaries of acceptable behaviour, and those boundaries had to be re-established.

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Every individual requires different tools and a step-by-step approach, with methods tailored to the problems displayed. Through trial and error, the horse’s behaviour becomes consequence-connected.

Above: Malan with Do It Again and his late groom, Levis (image: supplied)

Malan had worked with a number of Justin Snaith’s runners in the past, including the 2018 Equus Horse of the Year, Do It Again, and recalled: “He was quite an assertive horse, massively intimidating. Our sessions became so intense that Justin called time out one day and asked Jackson and I to step away for a few days.”

Groundwork is key, Malan noted, and with See It Again he quite literally had to start from scratch, teaching him the basics. “See It Again is a chilled customer with a nice personality. He is quiet and well behaved in his stable environment, but to get the process going he had to been countered face to face, in the lunging paddock.

“Horses do not have the faculty of reasoning. They are not very intellectual in comparison with humans, but they are super-sensitive to body language and their environment. First of all, I had to walk into his paddock in a calm, relaxed manner, without any bravado. Next, I had to show him that I was in charge – not him – and that he had to step back when he came too close to my personal space.”

Malan and Jackson identified four processes to reschool See It Again. The first stage involved basic groundwork in the paddock, followed by a second phase that gently reintroduced him to the starting area on the track. Stage three aimed to bring him right to the edge of the stalls, allowing him to get his nose close to the gate, or just inside it. The fourth and final process was to have him fully loaded and standing calmly, with the gates closed behind him. This was all done using the principles of operant conditioning, by which horses learn through trial and error, pressure and release, or where consequences are connected to behaviour.

The first stage, Malan explained, required three extended sessions over a period of roughly two weeks. “A horse has a small brain and can’t process everything at once, so the aim of each session is to make a small but tangible step forward before moving on to the next. We use a rope on a lead halter and the tried-and-tested method of pressure and release – applying pressure on the rope in response to negative behaviour, and releasing it to reinforce positive behaviour.”

Above: Rewarding See It Again with a pat on the head (image: supplied)

The key, said Malan, is patience, and a willingness to persist with the correct procedures even when the breakthrough feels frustratingly distant. Repetition, in this case, really does make perfect. See It Again first had to learn to rely on Malan as the leader – the one in charge –and then to understand precisely what was expected of him. By the third session, he was able to step forward in response to Malan’s prompts, and to step back when his teacher moved towards him. A pat on the head, or a reassuring stroke on the neck in approval of good behaviour, served much the same purpose as a rewarding biscuit does for a dog.

In the second stage of the schooling process, See It Again was taken to the pens alongside a companion. “We visited the starting environment as if we were going there on a race day,” Malan explained. “This is the area where he had his negative experience and realised that he didn’t like it. Our focus was on control and obedience. The aim was to get him to stand away from the gates, facing them, and then to move forward just a step in that direction, while I was walking back and leading him on the rope.

“This stage was critical and centred on consequence management, which invariably takes many hours. We had to patiently close See It Again’s escape routes, and it’s always a potentially dangerous situation because a horse can rear up, kick out, or break loose. But after a while he took his first step forward and was immediately rewarded. As noted, the remedial process is far tougher and more extensive with an older horse. We had to return for further sessions until he was happy to take several steps towards the stalls, and we were confident that all his escape routes had been effectively neutralised.”

In the third stage, Malan explained, he had to do more shaping of See It Again’s behaviour, guiding him towards the crucial step that would bring him right up to the back of the gate and allow him to simply place his nose inside. The risks at this point were just as great as in stage two, because he was now approaching the place where he had endured his worst experience. Again, the aim was small, progressive steps forward, achieved through repetition and the use of pressure and release on the rope.

“See It Again got it right after several attempts,” Malan said. “He stepped forward and just nudged the front of his head into the gate. At that point we patted him and took him immediately away and back to his stable. The aim was for him to retain the memory of a harmless experience for which he was praised, and to return a day or two later for the last phase of work.”

For the final stage of the process, the Cape starter, Fred Bosman, and his team had to be present so that See It Again could be officially passed through the pens, while jockey Andrew Fortune made himself available for this decisive test.

“We’d kept the starter fully abreast of See It Again’s progress with video clips, and he understood exactly what we were dealing with,” Malan explained. “Having a horseman like Andrew with us on such an important day helped enormously, because he has that rare ability to feel the mood of a horse underneath him and See It Again enjoys his handling. We’d worked together many years ago with Variety Club.”

With Andrew in the saddle, Jackson on the lead rope in front of him – walking backwards – and Malan positioned behind, See It Again was brought forward to the edge of the stalls and gently encouraged to move in. It was a moment in which a sudden flight response could have taken him back Step Two, or even Step Three, making it vital that everyone around him remained calm, patient, and respectful of the strong old guy.

See It Again walked in without hesitation. The gates were closed behind him. He was fully loaded, and jumped perfectly when the starter pressed the button.

Malan commented: “It’s always satisfying when we’re able to pass a problematic horse at the pens, but in 25 years of doing what I do, I’m acutely aware of how easily things can go wrong. The starting team knows it too, which is why careful planning goes into every race, with a Plan A, B, and C in place.

“See It Again got his starting certificate back, but he still had to prove that he could behave on an actual race day. This was vital. He was entered for the Green Point Stakes on 13 December, and to everyone’s delight he walked in and jumped like a star. He finished third to Dave The King that day – a big run – and we knew there was serious potential here.”

Above: See It Again’s triumphant Cape Town Met win (image: Race Coast)

Malan said about WSB Cape Town Met day: “There was a lot of confidence from everyone in the Snaith camp and with so much at stake there were unusual butterflies in my stomach. I went cold for just a few seconds when See It Again turned sideways when he was called to go in, but Jackson corrected him with a tap on the hindquarters and he loaded well.”

He has worked with a long list of champions, including Dynasty, Jay Peg, Legislate, and Abashiri, but Malan admitted that his success with See It Again ranked as a career highlight. He concluded: “I am very thankful for the opportunity. It’s good for the CV, but what makes me even happier is that this, in my view, marks the start of a second career for See It Again. He is very talented, and with all his wits about him, he’ll be a major force in the remaining features this season.”