Three-year-old filly to make Met snappy

Jack Milner

Three-year-olds, and three-year-old fillies in particular, often gave the World Sports Betting Cape Town Met a miss because they were not favoured by the race conditions.

As those transformed to weight-for-age terms, it became a better option for three-year-olds owing to the allowances for age and sex.

In 2018 Justin Snaith took advantage of the new rules and ran three-year-old filly Oh Susanna. With just 51.5kg to carry she was extremely well handicapped and she held off the opposition to become the first three-year-old filly to win the Met in more than 100 years.

Trainer Brett Crawford will be looking to emulate that feat when he sends out Make It Snappy in this year’s Grade 1 race over 2000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday.

There is a lot of action for racing fans to get their teeth into, whether you are lucky enough to be on course or whether you will be betting from home.

Not only is there a 12-race card which includes three Grade 1 races as well as the R7.5-million World Sports Betting Gold Rush for selective three-year-olds over 1600m, but as this is a Hong Kong World Pool meeting, it gives punters the opportunity to bet into multi-million rand pools from Races 4 to 12 for Win, Place, Exacta, Quinella and Swinger bets (Please see Page 3 for Hong Kong tote rules).

In addition, we have a number of carryovers, the biggest being the R1-million starting off the Pick 6 pool and it is likely to reach R10 million.

There is also a Quartet carryover of R1-million to Race 9, the Cape Town Met, with the pool likely to get to R5 million.

Finally, R200,000 has been added to BiPot 2 (Races 7 to 12) and with a likely pool of R1-million.

But back to the big race itself and Make It Snappy.      

This daughter of Dynasty has been a revelation. She was narrowly beaten on debut but has since reeled off four successive victories. Included in those are the Grade 1 World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas and the Grade 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes over 1800m where she beat last year’s winner and Horse-Of-The-Year Captain’s Ransom.

She is a natural front runner and still has enough in store to give a second kick halfway up the straight. She is perfectly drawn at No 2 and with the traditional “Cape Crawl” likely to prevail, Make It Snappy could get a soft lead.

The extra 200m should not be a problem and with just 51.5kg and log-leading jockey Keagan de Melo on her back, Make It Snappy will prove very hard to beat.

There is no shortage of confidence emanating from the Crawford yard either. “She’s fit and well, everything regarding her prep has been smooth and we’re expecting good run,” said Crawford onThursday.

“She won over 1800m last time and I don’t see the additional 200m being a problem.”

Last year Kommetdieding and Jet Dark finished first and second respectively and both will be competitive again. However, they have met three times since and Jet Dark has had the edge on all three occasions.

As a result, Justin Snaith’s charge could well have the advantage again. The son of Trippi seems to get better with age and has in-form Richard Fourie in the irons.

Kommetdieding has not won a race since last year’s Met. He tried to contest a couple of feature races in Johannesburg but did not appear to adapt to the altitude. He then travelled to Durban for the winter season where he ran well but also failed to find the winner’s enclosure.

However, he is now back home in the Western Cape, and after a well-deserved rest, the old Kommetdieding seems to be back. He ran second in a warm-up over 1200m and then placed in two runs over 1600m.

He is better over 2000m and with Gavin Lerena back in the irons it will be a surprise if he does not fight out the finish.

Another interesting runner is three-year-old colt Cousin Casey. This Glen Kotzen-trained runner was named Champion Two-Year-Old colt last season and has run well in his two runs as a three-year-old.

The son of Vercingetorix won the Grade 2 Cape Cup over 1600m and then contested the Grade 1 Cape Guineas but proved no match for star three-year-old Charles Dickens.

Cousin Casey is likely to prefer this distance and could give the more established runners a run for their money.

The only concern is that he has yet to race outside his own age group.

Another runner to consider is Mike de Kock-trained Sparkling Water. She won the Hollywoodbets Durban July and had a number of these runners behind her. However, even with her 2.5kg sex allowance, Sparkling Water has a lot to do at the weights but is not without a chance.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 2 Apple Catcher, 6 Head Girl, 9 Jazz Diva, 8 Hundredfifthavenue

Race 2: 1 Green Falcon, 4 On Board, 5 Logistical, 2 Seattlegreenlight

Race 3: 6 Going Up, 7 Live My Life, 4 Who Do You Love, 2 Bevies Delight

Race 4: 3 Captain's Ransom, 2 Desert Miracle, 4 Silver Darling, 5 Chansonette, Ciao Bella

Race 5: 13 Nevada King, 3 Gimme More Time, 1 Future Turn, 2 Bardolino

Race 6: 5 The Abdicator, 1 Golden Sickle, 12 Golden Tatjana, 14 First Origin

Race 7: 8 Royal Aussie, 11 Winter Greeting, 3 King Regent, 15 Time Fo Orchids

Race 8: 16 Princess Calla, 5 Alesian Chief, 2 Gimme A Prince, 1 Isivunguvungu

Race 9: 2 Make It Snappy, 4 Jet Dark, 6 Kommetdieding, 14 Cousin Casey

Race 10: 6 Nebraas, 2 Senso Unico, 12 Crome Yellow, 9 Silver Host

Race 11: 11 Veldskoen, 4 Usa's Hope, 3 Act Naturally, 10 Dance Variety

Race 12: 12 Flying First, 6 Turn The Page, 8 Copper View, 15 Mulberry Street

BEST BET

Race 4 No 3 Make It Snappy

VALUE BET

Race 12 No 12 Flying First

BEST SWINGER

BIPOT 1

R288

Leg 1: 1, 4, 5

Leg 2: 2, 4, 6, 7

Leg 3: 3

Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 13

Leg 5: 1, 5

Leg 6: 3, 8, 11

BIPOT 2

R576

Leg 1: 3, 8, 11

Leg 2: 1, 2, 5, 16

Leg 3: 2, 4, 6

Leg 4: 6

Leg 5: 3, 4, 10, 11

Leg 6: 6, 8, 12, 15

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R324

Leg 1: 4, 6, 7

Leg 2: 3

Leg 3: 1, 2, 3, 13

Leg 4: 5

Leg 5: 3, 8, 11

Leg 6: 2, 5, 16

Leg 7: 2, 4, 6

PICK 6

R2592

Leg 1: 3

Leg 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 13

Leg 3: 1, 5, 12

Leg 4: 3, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15

Leg 5: 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 16

Leg 6: 2, 4, 6, 14

JACKPOT 1

R60

Leg 1 : 2, 6, 9

Leg 2: 1, 2, 4, 5

Leg 3: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7

Leg 4: 3

JACKPOT 2

R648

Leg 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 13

Leg 2: 1, 5, 12

Leg 3: 3, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15

Leg 4: 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 16

JACKPOT 3

R120

Leg 1: 2, 4, 6, 14

Leg 2: 6

Leg 3: 3, 4, 9, 10, 11

Leg 4: 2, 6, 8, 15, 16