This weekend’s running of the Gr1 World Sports Betting Cape Town Met poses a number of interesting questions, not least whether current favourite Kommetdieding can add the Kenilworth showpiece to his Durban July success.
Furthermore, will market rival Jet Dark stay the 2000m trip and could Double Superlative become the first sophomore male winner in 21 years?
Let’s see if past history can provide us with some pointers.
Should Kommetdieding succeed in his quest, he will be the first July winner in a decade to complete the double, the last being Mike de Kock’s magnificent filly Igugu.
Power Pair. Igugu and Delpech charge to Met glory
Despite an interrupted preparation and a troubled passage, the 2011 July victress showed true grit when she reeled in pacesetter Bravura close home to win the 2012 Met by a half-length, with future champion sire Gimmethegreenlight back in third.
In the process she joined triple Met winner Pocket Power, who had forced a famous deadheat with the grey mare Dancer’s Daughter in a pulsating finish to the 2008 July.
On the other hand July winners who have tried and failed in the Met over the last decade include Pomodoro (fourth in 2013), Legislate (sixth in 2016), Marinaresco (third in 2018) and of course dual July winner Do It Again, who returns for a fourth crack at the prize. Now seven, his best efforts in three previous attempts were his neck second behind Rainbow Bridge in 2019 and a fourth place twelve months ago.
In contrast, four-year-old Jet Dark will be in the Met line-up for the first time.
Fresh off a second successive L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate victory, the colt will aim to become the first horse to complete the Queen’s Plate/Met double since Futura succeeded back in 2015.
Futura wins the Met in 2015
Futura strode to a facile 2.25-length victory three weeks after defeating Louis The King by just under a length in the Queen’s Plate.
Remarkably, his Met victory came twelve years after trainer Brett Crawford had lifted the trophy when Angus won the race in Sabine Plattner’s silks. For Futura’s part-owner, the late Jack Mitchell, the wait was even longer, 47 years to be exact, as his father Wally had won the Met back in 1968 with Hawaii’s accomplished half-brother William Penn!
Watch Futura’s 2015 Met victory:
Others who pulled off the double include such household names as Sledgehammer, Politician, Wolf Power and of course record triple winner Pocket Power.
Although Jet Dark has yet to score over the distance, he did win last season’s Gr1 Champions Cup over 1800m and maturity should see him cope with the extra furlong. His connections can also take heart from the fact that many talented milers have won the Met in the past – prime examples being Sledgehammer and Wolf Power.
In addition, over the last decade, Past Master (2011), Martial Eagle (2013) and One World (2020), had only scored up to a mile prior to their Met success.
2011 J&B Met success for Past Master
Besides, Jet Dark is out of mare by Jet Master, the sire of three Met winners and broodmare sire of dual winner Rainbow Bridge, who sadly will be missing from this year’s line-up following his untimely retirement after the Queen’s Plate.
Significantly, Jet Master is broodmare sire of another fancied runner in Double Superlative. Victorious in the Gr1 Cape Guineas on just his fifth start, Justin Snaith’s charge will attempt to break a 22-year drought and become the first three-year-old male winner since Mike de Kock’s Badger’s Coast defeated El Picha by a neck in the 2000 renewal.
Snaith has made no secret that he rates Double Superlative highly and as a son of Twice Over, the colt should have no problem staying the 2000m trip. Whether he will be able to cut the mustard against battle-hardened, experienced Gr1 rivals only Saturday’s race will tell.
Incidentally, the last three-year-old to win the Met was a filly, Drakenstein’s Oh Susanna, who held off Last Winter and champion Marinaresco in the 2018 renewal. This year’s line-up features just one member of the fairer sex in Candice Bass-Robinson-trained four-year-old Marina.
Oh Susanna (photo: hamishNIVENPhotography)
A typical, late-maturing daughter of Silvano, her link to the Met is a tangible one, as she is an own sister to Marinaresco, who appropriately was the first Gr1 winner for Candice in her first season as a fully-fledged trainer.
Successful in the Gr3 Victress Stakes two runs back, Marina most recently flew for third in her Met prep when beaten two heads in the Gr1 Cartier Paddock Stakes over 1800m.
While many will feel that she could be found wanting in this company, one shouldn’t forget that she took on the boys in last season’s Gr3 Variety Club Mile and finished third, beaten less than a length.
One thing is for sure, she will be running on when the whips come out and is just the type to take advantage of any chinks in the armour of her male rivals.
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