Sandown Sunday

RICHARD Hannon was bullish both before and after the Group 3 Solario Stakes, which was won in commanding fashion by his exciting colt Etonian under Pat Dobbs.

The son of Olympic Glory justified 15/8 favouritism to beat King Vega (Andrew Balding/Oisin Murphy) by just over a length, with the front-running outsider Apollo One (Peter Charalambous/Luke Morris) running well to hold on for third despite still seeming green.

Impressive

Etonian had been an impressive winner over this course and distance on his debut, and that form had already been franked when the horse he beat comfortably first time landed the opening maiden on the card, a race full of well-bred newcomers.

Etonian duly did his bit to uphold that form-line, but not before giving connections a scare when he seemed to take at least one false step around the turn. He soon recovered though, and showed an excellent attitude to seal his race with a sustained run from behind.

Unbeaten

Richard Hannon clearly thinks plenty of this unbeaten colt, as does owner Julie Wood, and the trainer made it clear that she would call the shots in terms of immediate targets, with the Dewhurst looking most likely to be his next target.

The proximity of the third, who is homebred by his trainer out of the tough racemare Boonga Roogeta, suggests that this is not the strongest form for the level, but the winner stamped his authority on the race, and must be considered an excellent prospect, even if his trainer is effusive by nature.

MAAMORA (Simon and Ed Crisford/William Buick) was having her first start since racing at Meydan early in the year when making all the running to land a gutsy success in the Group 3 Atalanta Stakes earlier on Sunday’s card at Sandown.

The daughter of Dubawi, an outsider in the betting at 14/1, was sent straight to the front by William Buick, and although she was crying out for the line in the final furlong, she dug deep to fend off Billesdon Brook (Richard Hannon/Sean Levey) by half a length, with 2019 winner Lavender’s Blue (Amanda Perrett/Jim Crowley) back to form in third, another three parts of a length away having been short of room with around a furlong to go.

Ed Crisford said about the winner: “We kept her in training to try to win a group race this year. She ran well in Dubai and finished third in the Balanchine over one mile and a furlong, and we thought this would be a perfect target for her and she did it nicely.

“She had to do quarantine after Meydan and the flight was delayed a little bit, so it just a took a little bit of time to get her back with all the travel restrictions, but she has been training nicely at home.”

She is likely to meet the runner-up again as Crisford nominated the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket as her end-of-season target.