Sandown Thursday

SIR Michael Stoute’s excellent recent run continued on Thursday night when Regal Reality landed the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes in emphatic fashion from the front-running Matterhorn at Sandown. The son of Intello, well-beaten behind Without Parole in the Heron Stakes on this card a year ago, has progressed as so many Freemason Lodge projects do, and put up a career-best performance to win by a deceptively wide margin under the guidance of Ryan Moore. In fairness, Matterhorn kept plugging away, and the fact the margin had grown to almost four lengths at the line reflects well on the winner.