Cape Town Met 2026: Justin Snaith Set For Fourth Straight Win

The 2026 Cape Town Met looks set for a familiar outcome on Saturday with trainer Justin Snaith seeking his fourth straight win in South Africa’s prestigious race. The only question might be which of his runners emerges on top?

Snaith, who trains a stone’s throw away from Kenilworth Racecourse in Cape Town, has won the last three editions of The Met. And in the quest for a fourth successive victory, he saddles more than half of the field.

On Saturday, January 31st, Eight on Eighteen will bid to defend the title he won in the 2025 Cape Town Met. The reigning Equus Horse of the Year has drawn perfectly in barrier 2 and is one of six contenders for the Snaith yard.

In a final field of just 11 runners, Snaith dominates things with six of them. As well as Eight on Eighteen, stablemates See It Again, Sail The Seas, Legal Counsel, Native Ruler and Okavango complete the Snaith-trained sextet to give South Africa’s champion trainer Snaith another strong hand to win the Cape Town Met.

Snaith’s first win in The Met came in 2018 when Oh Susanna, a three-year-old filly taking on her older rivals, upset the odds. 

Having been runner-up in 2022, Jet Dark went one better in 2023 to give Snaith his second win the race. It was the start of a hat-trick of victories with Double Superlative triumphant in 2024 and Eight on Eighteen coming home on top 12 months ago.

Is there another win in Eight on Eighteen? Will one of the other five Snaith runners come out on top? Or will the trainer’s winning run come to an end?

If Snaith is to be denied, it will be any of Sean Tarry’s Cosmic Speed, Stuart Ferrie’s Gladatorian, the Piet / Elbert Steyn-trained Garrix, Dean Kannemeyer’s The Real Prince or Tony Peter’s The Equator who come out on top.

The biggest threat of those five is The Real Prince, who catches the eye as he bids for a rare treble of South Africa’s premier weight‑for‑age and handicap features. 

After success in the 2025 Durban July and earlier this month in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate, he is bidding to complete his hat-trick of South Africa’s big three races inside the last six months.

Analysts from leading Bets.co.za have crunched the numbers and the odds and The Real Prince sits on the second line of betting ahead of that historic bid for victory.

A little surprising is that it isn’t defending champion Eight on Eighteen who is the favourite. Last year’s winner is actually only the third favourite to go back-to-back in the Cape Town Met.

It is See It Again who heads the betting and the most likely winner of Snaith’s six runners. Having previously been trained by Michael Roberts in 2025 when running in most big races in the country, he switched stables to Snaith ahead of the 2026 Cape Town Met.

Will that decision lead to victory? The odds certainly suggest he is the one to beat.