Premiers a match race - till stretch

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Under a confident ride by Quincy Welch, True Metropolitan cruised to a 3 3/4-length win over Spaghetti Mouse in the Grade 3, $150,913 B.C. Premiers at Hastings Sunday.

True Metropolitan paid $5 as the second choice behind Spaghetti Mouse. He posted a final time of 2:17.03 over a sloppy track.

Billed as a match race between True Metropolitan and Spaghetti Mouse, the 1 3/8-miles Premiers was exactly that until the top of the stretch, when True Metropolitan drew away from Spaghetti Mouse.

True Metropolitan stalked the pace-setting Spaghetti Mouse and moved up to engage him just past the quarter pole before taking control at the top of the stretch.

"I was happy to be outside of Spaghetti Mouse the whole way," said Welch. "He relaxes a lot more when he's outside of horses. I just let him do what he wanted to do and when Spaghetti Mouse tried to kick clear at the three-eighths pole I had plenty of horse. When we got to the quarter pole he really caught his stride, and when we hit the stretch it was all over."

True Metropolitan is trained by Terry Jordan and owned by Bob Cheema. With the win in the Premiers, True Metropolitan has a very good chance of being named horse of the year in both Alberta, where he won four stakes races, and British Columbia.

"I hope he gets horse of the year here, too," said Jordan. "It means a lot to Bob because he puts a lot of money and time into this business."