'This is my biggest day so far' - Saffie Osborne proves just the job as Metier swoops late to land Chester Cup

Saffie Osborne took full advantage of her opportunity to shine when she became the first female jockey to land the Chester Cup after steering Metier to victory for her biggest success.

The Grade 1-winning hurdler swept from the rear of the field to land the feature £150,000 handicap by a neck from Zoffee and the 11-4 favourite Call My Bluff.

“This is my biggest day so far,” Osborne said. “I'm into my third year's riding and to win a race of this magnitude means a lot. I've had a short career but a fairly eventful one, I've had plenty of injuries and it's been hard to get a clean run at it. So a race like this at the start of the season is great.”

Fry saddled Metier to Tolworth success at Sandown in 2021, before landing two valuable handicaps at Lingfield and Doncaster. He said: “There’s only one winning post and thankfully his head was in front when it mattered. It’s important to be winning these races and it means a lot because we set out to land big races and we’ve had some near-misses this spring. You spend years watching Chester and you never imagine winning a race like this – we’re over the moon.

Metier (left): came with a late surge to win the Chester CupCredit: Alan Crowhurst

“You can hear my voice, it’s a bit hoarse! We had a plan to sit as far forward as we could and it was probably further than we wanted to, but Saffie didn’t panic and she slotted him in where she could and gave him a lovely ride. Watching him go past us I think we were in 12th and there was nothing we could do, we just had to sit and suffer. Saffie did that and timed her run to perfection.”

Osborne, who partnered Metier to Doncaster success in November, added: “When they started to pick the race up from around the five he was travelling so easily and I was able to work my way round them gradually without having to burn too much petrol. He was all heart late on. He's a serious stayer and I hope he's got a really good future on the Flat.”

Hugo Palmer was accentuating the positive after coming within a neck of landing the big prize on his doorstep with Zoffee.

"I'd love to lift that cup but we're all good sports, you can't win them all and you're delighted when they run well," he said. "It's an itch that we have to scratch now. We'll keep trying, we were third last year and second this time. We're getting closer.

"The question mark was the ground. Zoffee has now proved he's totally versatile. He's still not there in his coat, we've been waiting for him to come and maybe if we'd got a run into him three weeks ago – Ben [Curtis, jockey] said he just took a slight blow with 100 yards to go. He'll come forward and the Ascot Stakes or Northumberland Plate would be possible races for him."

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