Precious Metal

The headline moment came on New Year's Day 2025 at Cheltenham, where Precious Metal won a Class 1 race — one of the top races in Britain — in what was also its first career win at the famous course. Cheltenham is the sport's most demanding stage, the place where reputations are made and false ones are found out. To walk in cold, never having won there before, and win at the top level is not something every horse manages. Many who try that track their whole career never achieve it.

Trained by Henrietta C Knight out of West Lockinge in Oxfordshire — a yard that has sent out 15 winners already this season — Precious Metal has clearly found a stable that knows how to place a horse well. Knight has the horse competing regularly at Class 1 level, winning 1 from 3 at that grade (33%), which means it is holding its own against the very best. That takes some doing.

What the form figures also tell you is that Precious Metal is peaking right now. The last six races read 1-–-3-1-2-2, which shows a horse that has been placed or winning in five of the six races it completed, with two wins in that recent run. Most tellingly, it raced just one day ago and won at Fontwell Park — this horse is fit, in form, and doing it in the here and now, not on reputation.

One more detail worth noting: on slightly soft ground, Precious Metal has won 2 from 4 races, a 50% win rate. That is exceptional. When the conditions suit, it becomes a different proposition entirely — something any trainer worth their salt will be watching the weather forecast for.