Justin Snaith heads towards the Sun Met like a cowboy with a smoking gun in each hand. Last year’s winner Oh Susanna and his July hero Do It Again (and how apt is his name!) showed they are in deadly form by taking the two big ones at Kenilworth on Saturday – and the bookmakers are suitably impressed.

Betting World halved Do It Again’s price from 28-10 to 14-10 and cut Oh Susanna from 12-1 to 7-1. World Sports Betting did much the same but go slightly bigger at 16-10 and 8-1.

Snaith, whose third championship is suddenly looking a lot more likely, said: “Oh Susanna is tough, the most aggressive filly to train and very much like Dancer’s Daughter in that respect. She wore ear muffs for the first time on Saturday to calm her down.”

Asked if he thought Do It Again will be better over the Met’s ten furlongs than the mile of Saturday’s L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate he replied, enthusiasm clearly bubbling: “Oh yes. His mile runs have usually been good but every time I don’t feel confident I look at the July and the final furlong where he was most impressive.”

He can start looking at the Queen’s Plate as well now. Do It Again made up six lengths in the final 300m to pip Guineas winner Soqrat almost on the line and this was no Cape crawl turning into a sprint either. Despite the strong head wind the 97.29 sec time was the fastest since Mother Russia eight years ago.

Richard Fourie, who had boldly predicted Met victory after the Green Point, this time said: “He is going to be hard to beat and I am already looking forward to the race. When I asked him, there was so much horse and he gave it to me in one rush.”

The Twice Over-sired winner is a living tribute to breeder Robin Bruss’s vast bloodstock experience and is owned by Nick Jonsson, Jack Mitchell and Bernard Kantor who paid tribute to the man her regards as the unsung hero of the Snaith Racing operation, Chris Snaith.

Rainbow Bridge, still second favourite for the Met but now out to 9-2, was beaten three lengths into third but had a bit of an off day by his standards. He was one of the slowest away and was under pressure turning for home. True, he accelerated strongly but this time it was more like a high-powered saloon than a Ferrari. “Now we know how good he is,” said Eric Sands, philosophically declining to take the result at anything more than face value. “But I don’t think the extra two furlongs of the Met will worry him.”

A little sadly perhaps, Legal Eagle could only manage fourth in the race he won three times and in the process he said goodbye to his ten-race unbeaten mile run.

“I had every chance,” related Anton Marcus. “It was a true run race and I felt I was in a perfect position but at no stage did I think I was going to win. He never travelled the way I thought he would but I still wouldn’t swap him for anything.”

For the second season running Lady In Black chased Oh Susanna home in the Cartier Paddock Stakes and this time she finished a length closer. But it was Paddock number five for Snaith, Fourie’s second and the third with a Drakenstein home bred for Gaynor Rupert who also celebrated her biggest day of the year with Inara in 2015.

The Snaiths went home with four winners but Brett Crawford outpointed them with three on the Friday and three more on Saturday.

By Michael Clower