The countdown to one of South Africa’s greatest racing extravaganzas, the R1,5-million, Grade 1 J&B Met, has begun and the major protagonists are flexing their muscles and making confident predictions that their charges are the ones to beat.

The 2 000 metre event will be run at Kenilworth in the Western Cape on Saturday with the Gommagomma Summer Cup winner, Tyson, favourite to win the event in spite of his failure to shine in the recent Queen’s Plate at the venue.

That race was won by the Western Cape hero, Winter Solstice, who is currently second favourite for the event and tipped by the Cape locals as the winner.

Trainers Stuart Pettigrew, who saddles Tyson and Joey Ramsden, who sends out Winter Solstice and three other runners, were interviewed on the Tellytrack programme Keeping Track on Monday night and both expressed great confidence in their horses.

Pettigrew said the only thing that would beat Tyson would be the Kenilworth track as the Silvino gelding had “blossomed” in the Cape and was as fit as he had been when winning the Summer Cup. He said he had personally ridden Tyson in a gallop at Kenilworth subsequent to the Queen’s Plate and the four-year-old had handled the left hand turn beautifully and was in the peak of condition.

Ramsden was optimistic about the chances of his team of four saying the preparation for all four had been perfect.

Winter Solstice has taken his Queen’s Plate run very well and is the sort of horse one can send to the front, settle in the middle of the pack or come from the back of the field, implying that he will be able to produce his best irrespective of how the race is run.

While there is a slight degree of doubt about the staying power of the National Assembly gelding, Invincible, who ran second to Winter Solstice in the Queen’s Plate and finished three lengths ahead of Tyson, there is staying blood in his dam line and Joey expects a good run from him.

Ramsden was extremely bullish about the chances of Sports Warrior who, he said, is peaking at the right time and is “jumping out of his skin.” The seven-year-old Sportsworld gelding ran second to Yard-Arm in this race last year and in his last race, the Peninsula Handicap, flew up late to be a neck fourth to winner Dunford.

The fourth member of the Ramsden team is the Badger Land gelding, Set To Music, who beat Winter Solstice in a thrilling finish to the Winter Derby at Kenilworth in June last year. In November, he travelled to Gauteng for the Summer Cup but was slow away and forced to ease in running. He returned to the Cape not quite in the best of health but is now back in top condition and is another from which the stable expects a big run.

While these two stables are receiving the most attention, they are not seen as the only ones having a winning chance.

Eric Sands is very confident his Fort Wood gelding Hundred Acre Wood is in with a strong winning chance after his hat-trick of wins over the last two months and one can never discount the chances of top stables like Geoff Woodruff, Mike de Kock, Dean Kannemeyer and Mike Bass.

Whilst the excitement in the racing fraternity and the whole of Cape Town mounts, the stage is set for one of the most thrilling races in the history of the J&B Met!