Tony McEvoy's decision to give Metier his chance in the $100,000 Eureka Stockade at Ballarat has been rewarded.

Three-year-old Metier finished strongly on the outside in Saturday's 1400m race to land his first win at his fourth start.

"It was a bit of an aggressive play, running him in this race today as a maiden when there was plenty of really good options, but I've got faith in him," McEvoy said.

"The blinkers really got him to travel today and Mark Zahra rode him beautifully.

"You could see a long way from home he was going to finish strongly, and he timed it to perfection."

Metier placed in his two starts as a two-year-old then finished last first-up this campaign in Adelaide but McEvoy explained that the gelding slipped at the start and came out of the race with a sore muscle in behind for a few days.

"I got him over that and to give him confidence to stretch out again after he hurt himself we gave him a little trial and he trialled nicely which gave me a little push to bring him here," McEvoy said.

Metier ($13) defeated Rezak by a long neck with three quarters of a length to Ragazzo Del Corsa third.