AS the rain continued to fall there were worries about Karl Burke’s Havana Grey in the Group 3 Bombay Sapphire Molecomb Stakes, the speedy youngster having twice dominated at Sandown on totally different ground.

However, there is no telling whether horses will handle a surface until they try it and the son of Havana Gold came home in style, beating July Stakes fourth Invincible Army by just under two lengths with To Wafij third.

Havana Grey, 7/2, is very fast indeed and this easy five furlongs might have been made for him. Having shaken off Fahey’s It Don’t Come Easy, he looked a natural five-furlong horse, whereas Invincible Army had tried six last time.

“I walked the course early and there is a lovely strip up the inside on the rails and that’s where I wanted P.J. (McDonald) to go,” Burke said. “The horse really got rolling after the first 50 yards and has a great turn of foot, as he showed when pulling away at the end. Probably as a team this is my best bunch of two-year-olds and we’ve a lovely group of staying types still to come. We’ll go for the Prix Morny with Havana Grey now and I entered him this morning. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets the six and he deserves a crack at a Group 1. We also have Unfortunately in the same race and will have two runners.”

For P.J. McDonald, so long a journeyman soldier on the northern front, this was a first Goodwood festival winner, indeed a first at the track after very few visits.