The Darley stable provided yet another demonstration of its undeniable power and added yet a new name to the Blue Diamond Stakes mix when Metastasio scored a comfortable win in the Nursery Handicap at Flemington on Saturday.
Metastasio’s win put her in the running for a start in Melbourne’s richest juvenile race alongside stablemates Montsegur and Guelph.
Metastasio winning Race 1 at Flemington - photo by Race Horse Photos Australia (Steven Dowden)
Having her first start, the cleverly-named Metastasio ($3.40) bounced to the front and kept going to account for Kona Breeze ($6.50) by 2-1/4 lengths.
The Yowie ($4.60) battled moderately to take third, a further length away.
She also became Darley’s first two-year-old winner by its World Cup-winning stallion Street Cry.
Co-trainer Paul Snowden said Metastasio would continue to the Blue Diamond Preludes at Caulfield next month as the stable fines down its team of youngsters.
“She’s very precocious as she showed today, very sensible and very progressive,” Snowden said.
Metastasio entered Blue Diamond markets at $12 with her stablemates Montsegur on the second line of betting at $8 and Guelph, who arrives from Sydney next week, at $21.
Neither Montsegur nor Metastasio is among the original nominations for the Blue Diamond with a late-entry fee to be considered after the Preludes.
Jockey Kerrin McEvoy said the ease of Metastasio’s win had slightly surprised him.
“She could be a bit special,” McEvoy said.
“When they came at her she didn’t panic and gave a bit more every time I asked her.”
Metastasio is out of the Singspiel mare Libretto and is named after Pietro Metastasio, Italy’s foremost librettist.
