Favourite Lady. Igugu is rumoured to be raring to go.
The big day looms. With less than twenty four hours to go to the 35th running of the Met under the J&B banner, the fascinating ten-race programme promises plenty of action and posers for punters.
Three Group 1 races, a Group 2 and a Listed race make up the afternoon’s entertainment for those focussed on the horses rather than the sideshows. A Pick 6 carryover pool that is expected to swell to well over R3 million will add to the interest.
The time for waffle and talking is over. With the money flowing on to the favourite Igugu, the rumour mill that has clouded her last fortnight looks under serious pressure and could well be silenced at just after 16h30 today. On paper the Galileo filly has everything in her favour to win the big one today.
The headline sponsor shares the day with Investec and Klawervlei sponsoring the Cape Derby and Majorca Stakes respectively in an intruiging mish mash of products. There are those that will argue that both of the mentioned features should be stand-alone events rather than piggy-back on the Cape’s premier race. The debate could really go either way. But what does it matter right now?
After the Saftote six place hullabaloo and fuss in the Vodacom Durban July and the Sansui Summer Cup, the J&B Met is only paying three places after the scratching on Thursday of the Mike Bass hope Chesalon. While this increases the level of difficulty of winning the bet, it also enhances the eventual dividends and many punters feel that the six-place facility dramatically watered down the amounts available for distribution. The principle remains that the reward is proportionate to the risk.
Day's Banker. Investec sponsor the Derby today.
The Mike De Kock debate will also no doubt once again raise its’ head after Chesalon’s scratching as to whether we shouldn’t be accepting much later for our big races and why we cannot race with reserve runners to ensure optimum field sizes. Only fifteen horses go to post for the big race.
It has been a wonderful week in many respects and while it is not over yet, it has also been a trying one on a few fronts with the comical spectre of the lost KwaZulu-Natal throwing a dark shadow on the credibility of the game’s administration.
With everybody who is anybody, and even a few nobodys, in the Cape for the parties, the Cape Premier Yearling Sale and the numerous other functions, Clairwood is sadly looking more and more like a bad case of the eye off the ball . That may be the most appropriate way of describing the debacle of the lost meeting against the background of the frenzied party fuelled glitz and glamour of J&B Met week in Cape Town. The derailment of the meeting produced a cruel twist of timing for senior management with most of them wrong-footed and many miles away from their desks lapping up the Cape sunshine. They will return to work next week with some serious credibility rebuilding required.
A big party. The Cape's biggest social event of the year.
The general publicity and exposure of the Met has gained momentum in the print media with Friday’s edition of The Cape Argus delightfully carrying a front page photograph of a runner with a supporting article. Met fever is contagious and we believe that the weather down in Cape Town will continue playing ball with beautiful Summer Sunshine the order of the day.
There is also never a dull moment either. The early Met preview promised by Tellytrack’s Cecil Mtembu on Tuesday evening strangely never materialised. Well it did, but only partly. Rodney Dunn’s well established Cocktails and Racing evening provided the platform for the Met expert panel discussion, but this was aggressively axed from the Tellytrack loop after just one screening in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
Tellytrack were tight-lipped when asked for comment this week, and the general word is that the discussion was in bad taste in sections and included below the belt comments and innuendo that was deemed inappropriate for general viewing.
This is a disappointing and somewhat embarrassing conclusion to what could have been an informative and interesting programme.
Farce About Ace? Back to front approach again...
The panel included knowledgeable people who hold public office in the game and the tickets for the evening suggested no age restriction or recommendation of parental guidance. The debate will no doubt rage as to whether a live party theatre atmosphere in front of mostly paying guests lends itself to the creation of a raw broadcast product. It remains an unnecessary and potential embarrassment though for both Gold Circle and WPOTA and could prove to be the undoing of a fundraising format that has worked well for so many years.
We are thus left largely to our own devices to find the winners. And that is what makes the challenge so interesting.
We wish you all a profitable day and suggest a focus on the Place Accumulator. A small fractional bet could provide great entertainment over much of the day – and even a nice return as the sun sets. For the brave and financially better endowed, a bite at the Pick 6 R3 million plus pool may also be rewarding.
