Metropolitan provides capital return from an 800gns broodmare purchase for Stuart McPhee

Stuart McPhee knows how it must feel to be a National Lottery winner, having just been thrust into the bloodstock spotlight from relative obscurity.

It was by much more than pure luck that he is the breeder of French 2,000 Guineas winner Metropolitan, the Zarak colt trained by Mario Baratti whose next stop is the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, but McPhee’s purchase of his dam for just 800gns at the Tattersalls February Sale nine years ago is very much the equivalent of scooping the jackpot.

This low-profile figure who has a regular job as a freelance project director, generally overseeing cases where companies are transforming their financial processes, has found old acquaintances appearing out of the woodwork and even been asked to do interviews about racing in French.