Jono Snaith
With stable star Legislate a late scratching from the Met, the Sporting Post caught up with Jonathan Snaith from the Snaith Racing team to ask his thoughts about the racing and their runners on the day. This is what he had to say.
How are you feeling about the big day?
While Legislate being out of the race is a huge disappointment – not only for us, but for all his fans – it does open up the race considerably. It’s also a pity because I think the race would have carried a lot more weight with the current Horse Of The Year in the field. Obviously that’s not going to happen now, because the horse comes first and it would not be fair on him or the public if we produced him on course 80% fit. I am very pleased with the five horses we are bringing to Kenilworth for the main event.
Legislate – lot too much time (Photo: Hamish Niven)
The trouble is that you can’t see what’s happening inside a horse. It’s not like a human that can tell you if they’re feeling a bit under the weather – we’re dealing with an animal that can’t talk. If a horse is working well, you don’t want to go sticking pipes into lungs, etc. just before a race. It’s all about timing. If a horse coughs in work, you can take bloods and pick it up, but if you miss it, and they get a virus and then race, that makes them susceptible to a secondary infections. So you just have to keep taking bloods and then look out for anything with elevated signals. If you see a spike, you do a lung wash and a scope and if you pick anything up, you take the horse out. Nothing stops a horse faster than a problem in the wind – if they don’t have oxygen, they stop like a ton of bricks. Legislate looked a million dollars on Queen’s Plate day, but he ran, fell in a hole and started coughing, and then we found the problem, but by then it was too late. I wish we had five weeks between races, not three. Even four weeks would have been OK, but three is just too close. You don’t want to run a horse that’s been out of work for ten days. It’s not ideal.
It’s very disappointing as he’s back to his full ability. His tracheal wash was clear and the vet said there’s no reason why he can’t run. Unfortunately he’s missed so much work and we don’t feel the horse would run near his best. There’s every possibility that he could still win, but why take that risk? He’s a young horse with a big future ahead of him and it’s simply not worth it.
What about the rest of your Met contenders?
The good news is that the prep for our other five runners has gone more than perfectly and we’re coming into the race with a little package of dynamite. Taken individually, each of them may not be considered good enough, but everything has gone well and they all seem to doing outstandingly well. Our squad is ready!
Arion did a knee chip after finishing 3rd to Legislate in the Cape Derby and didn’t race for a year. He’s doing outstandingly well and seems to be peaking at the right time.
Dynamic on the comeback trail, winning the Premier Trophy
Dynamic is also something of a wonder horse. He did a double tendon – in both legs. The vets told us he’d never see a racetrack again. That’s how my dad got half the horse – Hassen wanted to give him away! Justin put him on the farm for 6 months, then sent him to Mike Stewart for 6 months and 14 months later, he came back and won well. And he just gets better and better. We deliberately didn’t run him between his races because we wanted to keep him fresh and sound and run straight into the Met. He’s had a beautiful prep – he is unbeaten in 3 starts after a break, he’s been lightly raced, so he’s fresh and should produce an outstanding effort. On his form he’s got to have a chance and Sean (Cormack) is quietly confident.
Jet Explorer – capable of anything
I feel our dark horse has got to be Jet Explorer with the 1 draw – he has never been better – he’s like a lion at the moment and trying to kill everyone in sight! It’s unbelievable when you consider he was pretty much dead 6 months ago and we thought he’d never survive, nevermind see a racetrack again. Look at his last 2 runs in the Queen’s Plate and his run in last year’s Met. When he turns it on, he’s capable of anything and we’ve never seen him better. It would make quite a story if he could win it.
Johnny Rockets unfortunately is not a very sound horse. He doesn’t take a lot of races and we’ve really battled with his feet. Thankfully we seem to have got on top of that now and he trotted out well after his gallop last week. Ken was keen to have a runner and has a lot of faith in the horse and we’re more than happy to oblige and give him a chance.
Astro New – an amazing little horse
Astro News is also unsound and arrived with terrible feet, but we’ve patched him up and he’s a different horse to when he arrived. I actually looked at him yesterday afternoon and said ‘wow’. He’s looking outstanding and is in the best condition we’ve ever seen. He’s tipped to run last, but I’d be pretty surprised to see that happen. He’s an amazing little horse.
We’re going in with a lot of backup and couldn’t be happier with the 5 we’ve got running. We’re confident that they’re going to run out of their skins – all of them – so in that sense we’re happy. Look, it’s going to be tough to beat Futura. I make him the horse to beat. His prep has been pretty good and I think he’ll be better suited to the 2000m trip. And then the Joburg guys put a lot of time, effort and money into getting their horses down here and they always seem to do well, so they can’t be discounted. But with Legislate out, we’ll be much happier watching the race now as there’s much less pressure and the pressure will be on the other guys instead. Bottom line is we’re very happy with the team we’re taking to the races. If the other guys slip up, our horses will be there. We’re quietly confident that one of ours could quite easily pop up and surprise.
Richard Fourie was reportedly under the weather on Met gallops day – has he recovered?
He had a head cold on gallops day, but he’s fine now. He probably had the same virus as Legislate! With the late scratching, all the other riders have confirmed and you can’t go changing things around now, so unfortunately he’ll be sitting out the Met.
Snaith Racing has traditionally made a concerted effort on the big name race days – any of your other runners we should keep an eye out for?
It’s a competitive card and we’re not going into the day with confidence. Unfortunately we’ve had a little bug in our stable and we’ve only had 4 winners from our last 50 runners, which is very poor for us. If anything, punters probably want to stay away! We’ve already scratched three, we’re taking bloods today and depending on the results, may well scratch a few more. With the way things are going, I don’t really want to tip as I’m bound to get it wrong.
Muscatt holds the record for the Kenilworth 1000m
In the Freightmore Handicap, Villa Del Largo is an older horse now, but he’s never been better. He represents great value at 10/1. Muscatt holds the Kenilworth course record over 1000m and he could surprise. When he came to us, we operated on his wind, and he’s been doing a lot better since then. If this was a 1000m, I’d fancy him strongly, but he’ll run a big race regardless. I quite like Joey’s horse, Gulf Storm. He’s in form and you’ve got to follow the stables that are in form.
Buckinghampshire in the Juvenile Stakes is probably our best runner and all being well, I’d make him our banker on the day. He’s well weighted and has come on well since his first run.
In the Schweppes, we’ve got Ultimate Dollar and Fire Master. They’ll have to beat St Tropez, but they’re both serious horses and I think we’ve got chances with them.
