SA Champion trainer Justin Snaith celebrated a third consecutive R5 million World Sports Betting Gr1 Cape Town Met victory in the Nic Jonsson silks when the 3yo Eight On Eighteen stormed through a gap down the inside to become only the fourth sophomore in a quarter of a century to win the Cape’s flagship trophy.
While some experts noted the perceived lack of genuine vintage and depth amongst the older horses in the 163rd renewal of the 2000m contest, the now four-time Met winner Justin Snaith’s astute planning again hit the bull’s eye in a year that that unravelled perfectly for the taking by a progressive 3yo.
Receiving kilo’s from his 15 opponents, the lightly raced Eight On Eighteen was given a superbly confident ride by Richard Fourie, who was celebrating a personal second success in the Met.
After Oriental Charm, Montien and Red Palace had entered the final 300m with a shout, Fourie directed Eight On Eighteen (18-10) from the midfield to the inside, to get up to win going away beating the revitalized Oriental Charm (8-1) by half a length in a time of 123,68 secs for the 2000m.
Hats off to Piet Botha, who had two runners and will be thrilled by Louis The King’s son Motien’s terrific showing, finishing under a length back in third.
See It Again (17-2) thankfull found his better form to run on smartly for fourth, with both Rascallion and Red Palace not disgraced.
The winner, a R700 000 National Yearling Sale purchase, made it 3 wins with 4 places from his 7 starts for stakes of R3 809 588.
The Cape Derby looks his for the taking!
Raced by Nic Jonsson and Johann Rupert, he is a son of deceased War Front stallion Lancaster Bomber out of the unraced Captain Al mare, Sempre Libre.
While there has been some speculation about how Eight On Eighteen got his name, and Mr Jonsson gave the media ranks a bit of a rev in the post-race interview, here is the story behind the name in Justin Snaith’s words post his Langerman victory last season: