Stentorian performance due in Solario Stakes
Form-book students were left with a couple of surprises from this week’s Ebor meeting at York.
The most obvious was the victory for rank outsider Sole Power in the Nunthorpe Stakes on the final day; which still looked impossible even when reading the result. The other was that Mark Johnston managed to go through the four days without a winner.
However, the trainer whose motto is “Always trying” is back for more and can with the Group Three Alexis Catchpole Celebration Solario Stakes at Sandown Park for the third time in five years with Stentorian.
With just a win in a Leicester maiden to show from four career starts, Stentorian might not look an obvious candidate but his last two runs put him at a higher level than most of the field. He was two lengths second to Zoffany – the subsequent winner of the Group One Phoenix Stakes – in a Listed race at Leopardstown and although he was no match for King Torus, in the Group Two Vintage Stakes at Goodwood, he still plugged on gamely for second.
He is suited by front-running tactics and this track often lends itself particularly well to pacesetters and it might be the same for Australia Day, another who is capable of winning from the front, in the Sunderlands Handicap.
There is no shortage of promising fillies in the Listed Danepak Atalanta Stakes, where Luca Cumani looks to take the next step with Seta. She was considered Classic material even before she ran as a two-year-old but her run in the 1000 Guineas, on unsuitably soft ground, forced Cumani to take his time and she had been restricted two just two runs since.
Seta has won both, a conditions race at Leicester and a Listed race at Warwick, but now she must carry a 4lb penalty and that may make her vulnerable to the unexposed Decorative.
Having won her maiden at Yarmouth last August, which produced four subsequent winners, a knee injury kept her off the track until June when Decorative won a handicap at Nottingham. The Group One entries suggest that she is still well thought of and the Michael Jarvis stable has a 39% strike-rate this month.
A combination of three wins and three seconds in 11 course starts, some decent form this season and a plum draw give Matsunosuke a winning chance in the S Norton Handicap.
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