Danny Muscutt winning the WSB Cape Town Met on Double Superlative (Picture: Wayne Marks)
WSB Cape Town Met-winning jockey Danny Muscutt has been declared to ride for champion trainer Justin Snaith and owner Nick Jonsson at the SplashOut Cape Derby meeting at Kenilworth on 24 February.
Muscutt’s name is alongside the highly regarded Snaith-trained Jonsson-owned Trippi colt Hluhluwe, who won the Gr 2 Cape Punters Cup over 1600m and was third in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas.
The 28-year-old Muscutt rode 33-1 longshot Double Superlative to victory for Snaith and Jonsson in Cape Town’s premier race last month.
The son of Summerveld-based trainer Peter Muscutt is the UK’s reigning All-Weather Champion Jockey.
HIs father sugggested he come out and ride a couple for him on Met day and when Nick Jonsson heard this news he and the Snaiths were quick to react.
Jonsson said after the Met, “Towards the end of 2022, I had a conversation with William Haggas and told him we needed to bring another Engand-based rider out for the summer because we sometimes have more horses in big races than we have top class jockeys for and I said, ‘Who’s an up and coming young guy who can benefit?’, because the top riders all go and ride overseas during their winter. He said, ‘That is easy … Dan Muscutt is the guy.’”
Muscutt was not available at the time, but Jonsson did not forget the conversation.
So fate had it that Daniel came out to visit family and pick up a few holiday rides and ended up becoming the first overseas-based jockey in history to win the Met.
His professionalism and skills throughout his short stay impressed the Snaiths and Jonsson enormously and appears to have earned him a recall.
Muscutt has also been declared to ride former Equus Champion Sprinter Rio Querari for Snaith in the Grade 2 Diadem Stakes, a 1200m sprint on the same card.
