20th top-flight winner for Sea The Stars as Tattersalls Autumn HIT graduate Just Fine takes out The Metropolitan

Following his last-start victory in the Kingston Town Stakes a fortnight ago, Just Fine was propelled into favouritism for The Metropolitan at Randwick and he did not let his supporters down on Saturday, coming out on top of a close finish to take the Group 1. 

Ridden by Rachel King, the gelding showed bravery in spades when beating Spirit Ridge by a neck, while Kalapour was another four and a quarter lengths behind in third. In winning the race, Just Fine handed his trainer Gai Waterhouse her ninth win in the mile-and-a-half contest, but first with her training partner, Adrian Bott. 

“I think that proves he stays [this trip]," said King. "Funny when I spoke to Gai this morning, not that I had a question mark about the 2,400m, but a question mark people had. I just mentioned that, and she said, ‘Where was this horse born?’ I said, ‘England’, and she said, ‘Exactly, your home town. Of course, he’ll stay.’ Gai and Adrian couldn’t have given me any more confidence. 

"The whole team at home have put a lot of effort into this horse, and all that work has helped him to adapt so quickly."

The win also provided Gilltown Stud’s leading stallion Sea The Stars with his 20th Group 1 winner. Bred on the same hugely successful Sea The Stars-Kingmambo nick as Baaeed, the Arc-bound Hukum, Cloth Of Stars and Zelzal, Just Fine was bred by Godolphin out of the winning Bint Almatar. 

It is a pedigree that has had another recent Group or Grade 1 update as Bint Almatar's half-brother Master Of The Seas landed the Woodbine Mile earlier this month for Charlie Appleby. The 16-year-old Bint Almatar is a daughter of Sheikh Mohammed's Firth Of Lorne, a daughter of Danehill who was second to Zenda in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches in 2002. 

Having began his career with Sir Michael Stoute, for whom he ran 14 times and recorded three victories, Just Fine then fetched 300,000gns at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses-In-Training Sale in 2022, when selling to McKeever Bloodstock and his current trainers.

Born A King, a 120,000gns purchase by Chris Waller from the Tattersalls sale in 2020, was also successful on Saturday in the Listed R.M. Ansett Stakes at Mornington. 

The Frankel gelding was bred by Faisal Meshrf Alqahtani and hails from the family of American Grade 1 winner and Juddmonte America sire Mizzen Mast.

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