WEST Dorset trainer Harry Fry admitted he is leaning towards the Sky Bet Supreme for Metier rather than the Ballymore after entries for the novice hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival were revealed.

The sponsors make Metier their second-favourite after the five-year-old recorded an impressive 12-length victory in the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown earlier this month.

Fry said: “Metier is a Tolworth winner and the Supreme is the much more likely of the two races, rather than the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, but we will just keep our options open at this stage.

“He has got an entry in the Betfair Hurdle in just over a fortnight’s time, but there is no definite decision yet. He has done everything right so far over hurdles and is a very exciting novice that seems to be progressing into either a Supreme or a Ballymore horse.

“There is a race at Exeter the day after (the Betfair) in which he would only have a 5lb penalty, but then if you are looking at that why not run in a Betfair?

“If the weather keeps as it is there is every chance he will line up in the Betfair Hurdle. I think a better race with an even stronger gallop will suit him better again. We were able to drop him in the last day in the Tolworth, but we would have still been happier if they had gone faster.

“All his form is on slower ground and it would be interesting to see him on better ground. At some point we will encounter it, but good horses go on all ground.

“We would have to weigh up and decide the pros and cons whether going on better ground means we would have to step him up in trip.”

Fry has also entered Boothill in both the Supreme and the Ballymore. The six-year-old made a winning hurdling in good style at Taunton last month.

“Boothill had a splint flare up about 10 days after he won at Taunton and that just held us up for a few weeks,” Fry went on.

“I had hoped to get him back for the Sidney Banks at Huntingdon, but that is just going to come too soon. He could end up going to the Dovecote at the end of February. In the worst-case scenario, he might even end up going straight to Cheltenham – I would like to get another run into him between now and then, but we will be guided by him.

“We are back pressing on again with him. Hopefully, we don’t get a recurrence of the splint injury and get a clear run with him. Certainly, on the manner of his debut win at Taunton, there looks to be lots to look forward to.”

He added: “Boothill and Metier are completely different types. Metier is an ex-Flat horse that is very workmanlike at home and is very much a hurdler, whereas Boothill is a proper chasing type who impresses in everything he does at home.”

The Supreme, the opening contest on day one over two miles, has attracted 96 entries, with a record 59 trained in Ireland – including the 5-2 ante-post favourite, Appreciate It from the Willie Mullins yard.