The Met Is Really Hotting Up!

Legislate – questions or answers?

The J&B Met log has been released. The reigning Equus Horse Of The Year Legislate occupies the number one spot, despite being replaced as ante-post bookmaker’s favourite by Futura after the shock result of the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate.

Futura won the Queen’s Plate last Saturday, despite an interrupted preparation, while Legislate finished last, despite starting at cramped odds of 9/20. Futura is number two on the log.

The Triple Crown and Sansui Summer Cup hero Louis The King was a touch unlucky in the Queen’s Plate and finished strongly for second. He is in number three on the log, one ahead of the best three-year-old in the country, the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas winner Act Of War.

Justin Snaith – six horses in the top 20

Champion trainer Justin Snaith has six horses in the top twenty and two more on the outside looking in.

Louis The King’s Geoff Woodruff-trained stablemate Killua Castle earned the fifth spot through his narrow Summer Cup runner up finish and his impressive win in last weekend’s Gr 3 London News Stakes. The Woodruff-trained Tellina, fifth in the Queen’s Plate, is in ninth place on the log, but his continually disappointing stablemate Rake’s Chestnut is outside of the top 20.

Mike Bass has three in top 20

Mike Bass also has three in the top twenty, while Brett Crawford has two and one other who is just outside.

Joey Ramsden has two in the top twenty, including the only three-year-old in the race, Act Of War.

It is perhaps surprising to find the seven-year-old Gold Onyx, third in the Queen’s Plate, in sixth place on the log ahead of the like of the Gr 1 winner King Of Pain. However, that is likely due to the latter’s lack of a run since finishing second to Futura in the Gr 1 Champions Cup last July.

The only new entry at the final supplementary stage, the Justin Snaith-trained Astro News, has just scraped into the top 20.

The connections of Johnny Rockets, De Kock, Rake’s Chestnut and True Master will face a few nail-biting days ahead of the final field announcement as they are the only horses of the remaining 24 entries that are outside of the top 20.

Glen Kotzen – Jet Belle in the balance

However, the only filly still among the entries, Jet Belle, who is currently eighth on the log, might provide one place as her trainer Glen Kotzen said she would probably run in the Gr 1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes instead.

The final field announcement will be broadcast on Tellytrack, channel 239 on the DSTV bouquet, at 18h30 live on Monday 19 January.

The R2, 5 million J&B Met will run on January 31 at Kenilworth Racecourse with an even brighter shine attached to it with the announcement that every person on course who purchased a general entrance ticket at www.computicket.co.za  will stand a chance of winning a diamond pendant valued at a breath taking R500, 000. (T&Cs apply* www.jbscotch.co.za  )