OH Susanna became the first three-year-old filly to win the Met since 1902 when producing an explosive finishing burst in the Sun International-sponsored 10-furlong weight-for-age at Kenilworth last Saturday.

An Australian-foaled daughter of Irish-bred Street Cry, she had beaten the older fillies and mares in the Grade 1 Paddock Stakes three weeks earlier and before that had finished second to stable companion Snowdance in the Cape Fillies Guineas.

Snowdance won the Klawervlei Majorca (a mile Grade 1) and hour before the Met so Oh Susanna’s chance was in the book and she started third favourite at 6/1.

Grant van Niekerk spent a week getting down to 51.5kg and, when he was introduced to Lester Piggott (“I’m in South Africa for a while”) in the parade ring the first thing the great man said to him was how he was feeling after all that wasting.

HUNGRY

“Very hungry,” came the reply but Van Niekerk added: “I’d been trying not to put any pressure on myself – and for a jockey that’s hard – but Lester wished me the best of luck and that boosted my confidence.”

He had his mount handy throughout and began unleashing her halfway up the straight. When favourite Legal Eagle, second in each of the last two years, began to falter inside the final furlong, Oh Susanna swept past and Van Niekerk stood up in the irons, waving an arm in celebration, and Last Winter came from the clouds under Piere Strydom to be beaten only half a length. The stipes took a dim view and fined him.

The 26-year-old, a colourful character, picked up a bottle of champagne on the presentation ceremony and promptly sprayed everyone around him like a Formula 1 winner, including the filly’s owner-breeder Gaynor Rupert and Usain Bolt who was helicoptered in by the sponsors.

PRESSURE

Trainer Justin Snaith, more practically, took a hefty swig before remarking that he and his father before him had been trying to win the race for 40 years. “Usain Bolt is one of my lifetime heroes and I felt I had to win the race this year in order to meet him. There was a lot of pressure and I thought we were gone when I saw Oh Susannah having a hard time early on.”

TARGET

Snaith, who trains well over 150 horses, makes a big thing of targeting South Africa’s richest raceday and he won five of the 13 races including three of the four Grade 1s.

Snowdance, by Captain Al out of a mare by the American-bred Joshua Dancer, started almost unbackable at 1/4 in the Majorca but she appeared to make heavy weather of it in the straight. However Van Niekerk explained why, saying: “At about the 350 metre mark a bird suddenly flew up in front of us and after that she was looking at everything.”

BREATHING

Bernard Fayd’Herbe had the mount on the Snaith-trained Sergeant Hardy (another by Captain Al, who died last year) in the Betting World Cape Flying Championship and the four-year-old made much of the running to defy the breathing problems that resulted in him failing to sell as a yearling.

His task was made easier by a false start. Two of the runners, including the Mike de Kock-trained Naafer, could not be pulled up and were promptly scratched, while the fancied Search Party was also withdrawn after unseating his rider on the way back to the restart and then bolting.

The Investec Cape Derby was tame by comparison even though the favourite, the Guineas winner Tap O’Noth, unaccountably flopped. “He felt a bit lethargic and by the time the winner went I had no horse underneath me,” said rider M.J. Byleveld.

The race was won by the Dynasty colt Eyes Wide Open who had originally been targeted at the Met. “I looked at the pedigree and saw he was a 26th November foal,” trainer Glen Kotzen explained. “I thought ‘Am I made or what?’ I decided we should go for the Durban July this season and we can have a crack at the Met with him next year.”

The meeting had been under threat from the unions – particularly those whose pension funds had been hit by the collapse of the Steinhoff share price – who had announced plans to protest against the Markus Jooste-owned horses. In the end an agreement was reached whereby no horses would run in Jooste’s colours.

Prices fall at

yearling sale

THE previous weekend’s Cape Thoroughbred Yearling Sale was the first to be held without its biggest buyer and prices fell heavily. The average fell nearly 28% and the aggregate was down by similarly. Jooste had owned a quarter of the sales company and almost half of Klawervlei Stud, the sale’s biggest vendor.

Top price was R4 million (roughly €270,000), paid by Snowdance’s part-owner Jack Mitchell for a Frankel colt out of the Irish-bred Kingmambo mare Pale Moon Rising.

There was also a small but select mare sale. Top price of R2.6 million was paid by Rathmor Stud for Irish-bred Queen Of Spain (a three-parts sister to Mastercraftsman) in foal to last season’s Cape Guineas winner William Longsword.