There has been a Met betting shake-up after a dramatic weekend.
The punters’ picture of the WSB Cape Town Met was dramatically changed in just a few fleeting moments of galloping time at the weekend.
It was the outcome of the Grade 2 Ridgemont Green Point Stakes over 1600m that got the mental calculators whirring – not so much former Equus Horse of the Year Dave The King holding on to win the race in familiar style, but the performances of runner-up Garrix and third-placed See It Again.
The latter had been consigned to the naughty corner and the chilly reaches of betting boards after developing a senior citizen’s curmudgeonly streak, refusing to load and having to be scratched from two races at his home track Greyville.
With the help of a horse whisperer at the Green Point start – and the renowned hands of veteran jockey Andrew Fortune – See It Again entered his starting stall satisfactorily. But, when the gates opened, the big chestnut flyjumped away and lost lengths to a strong field.
The way See It Again and Fortune made up ground and battled their way into contention forced a rethink of a racehorse who had definitely entered “uncool” territory. A repeat of that effort – or indeed an improvement upon it over a more conducive 2000m – could easily see the Michael Roberts-trained gelding landing the Met.
Shortened to 5.00
See It Again, who was once at 16.67 in WSB’s Met betting, immediately shortened to 5.00 – with long-time favourite Eight On Eighteen easing slightly to 1.82.
Garrix, from the small stable of Piet Steyn and a 40-1 shot in the Green Point, was slashed from 25.00 to 6.25 in the Met reckoning.
As all these audit balances were being done, the National Horseracing Authority’s handicappers were doing their merit rating sums.
See It Again’s MR of 125 was left untouched because the officials deemed that winner Dave The King was the appropriate line horse for their calculations – and also left his MR unchanged at 128.
Garrix was not so fortunate. He was slapped with five points, from 118 to 123.
But the poor horse who suffered most was sixth-placed Jet Force, from the Des McLachlan yard, who went from 93 to 120 for “a performance well above his pre-race ranking where he had been rated to finish last”.
Jet Force is not among the Met first entries, but is entered for the 1600m L’Omarins King’s Plate, with the mile clearly being his optimum trip.
See It Again and Garrix both hold dual LKP and Met entries and both shortened considerably in betting for the former after Saturday’s revelations.
King’s Plate favourite Jan Van Goyen is in to 2.86 after his demolition of a powerful field in the Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas on Saturday – having opened at 10.00.
Betting
L’Ormarins King’s Plate (10 January 2026):
2.86 Jan Van Goyen
4.55 Eight On Eighten
6.25 See It Again, Garrix
8.00 Dave The King, Sail The Seas
12.00 The Real Prince, Happy Verse
15.00 and upwards the others
WSB Cape Town Met (31 January 2026):
1.82 Eight On Eighteen
5.00 See It Again
6.25 Garrix
7.14 Sail The Seas
10.00 The Real Prince
14.29 Regulation
16.67 Happy Verse, Gimme Rules, Gladatorian
20.00 Olivia’s Way, Dave The King
25.00 and upwards the others
