Peter Moore at Sandown Park Saturday 2nd September 2023
It was Virgin Bet Summer Celebration day at Sandown Park with the highlight of a very competitive day’s racing the Solario Stakes.
On a sun drenched afternoon in Surrey a large crowd were present with the opening race a Class 3 handicap for three year olds and upwards which was won by the 13-2 chance Maywake ridden by Oisin Orr for Richard Fahey who sent the horse down to Sandown on a trip from Malton of 226 miles.
The horse kept on well and went clear hundred yards from home under Orr to win by four lengths from King Cabo and Indemnify.
Sean Levey was successful on the second race of the afternoon when Heredia was sent off as a 5-2 favourite and under Levey got the better of Robert Havlin aboard Queen For You by three quarters of a length.
The likeable Marco Ghiani won the third race on the card comfortably by getting Dual Identity first past the post to win by four lengths at 9-2.
The five year old led over a furlong out and was soon ridden to go well clear and kept on well.
Despite only six runners going to post in the valuable Solario Stakes, a very competitive field was present.
The 7-4 favourite Aablan made it consecutive victories with James Doyle getting the colt home in a thrilling finish to the race with Inishfallen going neck and neck with Aablan.
Despite running green two furlongs out the Charlie Appleby trained horse just got the better of Inishfallen by a neck, with the highly fancied Mortlake back in third. Trainer of Mortlake Raf Beckett stressed that he felt the horse lost the race in the paddock were he was very unsettled.
Beckett had better luck in the fifth race of the afternoon when the odds on favourite Classical Song prevailed under Ryan Moore to win comfortably by three lengths from James Doyle on Beautiful Love.
In the penultimate race of the day, Trevor Whelan had to work hard to eventually win the race from Rating.
Spanish Blaze dwelt at the start and found himself boxed in for room a couple of furlongs out . He started to make some headway before leading a furlong out. He kept on well to win by a length and a half.
Apprentice rider Connor Planas on board the 14-1 shot Rathbone was successful in the final race to pull clear inside the final furlong to win by two and a half lengths from the 5-1 joint favourite Spring Bloom.