Stryker 3YO Wins $100,000 Eureka Stockade

It’s nice to break your maiden in a good race and that happened for promising Stryker gelding Metier when powering home to win the $100,000 VOBIS Gold Eureka Stockade at Ballarat on Saturday.

 

Fitted with blinkers and stepped up to 1400 metres, the Tony McEvoy trained Metier produced a strong late finish for Mark Zahra to overpower his more fancied rivals and win by a long head.

“It was a bit of an aggressive play running him in this race today as a maiden when there was plenty of really good options,” McEvoy said. “But I’ve got faith in him and the blinkers really got him to travel today - he hasn’t travelled very well in his races.

“You could see a long way from home he was going to finish strong and Mark timed it to perfection.”

A $40,000 Inglis Classic purchase from the Three Bridges Thoroughbreds draft for his trainer, Metier has a win and two placings from four starts and prizemoney topping $75,000.

Bred by Makybe, he was a successful pinhook for Three Bridges having been bought by Paul Willetts for just $10,000 as a weanling at the Inglis Great Southern Sale in 2013.

Metier is the second winner for Danzero mare Unblemished, who comes from the family of Group II winner Truly Wicked, the dam of Group I HK International Sprint winner Amber Sky.

Metier is another good winner for Stryker following on from smart recent wins for Rangipo and Baggio this month.