Metier’s a muddy marvel
ON the final day of the domestic Flat Turf season and with the ground more suited to jumps racing, appropriately it can be Harry Fry, a trainer who mainly plies his trade through the winter months, who takes the feature BetGoodwin November Handicap with METIER (Doncaster, 3.13).
The ground at the South Yorkshire track is already heavy and, with another band of rain due to move in overnight, the action looks likely to be attritional.
That will suit Metier, who in 2021 won the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown in arduous conditions.
It is fair to say he has not hit the heights that run suggested he could reach but he put in a couple of decent runs in the 2021-22 jumps season, winning at Lingfield in January, again in heavy ground, and finishing fourth in a valuable handicap hurdle at Ascot just before Christmas.
That race was won by Tritonic, one of his rivals today, and Metier challenges him again on far more favourable weight terms. He can also take advantage of the three-pounds allowance claimed by his jockey, Saffie Osborne.
Metier is also reasonably handicapped on his good Flat form in Ireland before he was sold to the Fry stable for almost £160,000 in 2019.
The November Handicap line-up includes a contender that could potentially be streets ahead of his rivals in Israr.
The colt, trained by John and Thady Gosden, won impressively at last month’s Doncaster meeting and is impeccably bred, with his dam being the 2014 Oaks and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Taghrooda.
His future may well be at a higher level but the conditions he has to cope with will not be easy for a three-year- old against older rivals. He is probably worth taking on at his likely odds.
The influence of the ground also plays a big part in making BROKEN SPEAR ( Doncaster, nap, 3.45) the best bet of the day.
The Tony Coyle- trained selection runs well at the track and was fifth in the Lincoln Handicap when the Turf season opened there in March.
He won today’s race a year ago off a three-pounds higher rating than the one he races off today and he signalled his time was close when narrowly beaten in a course and distance contest last month on heavy ground.