Solario offering test of well-regarded Mortlake’s potential

Quantum Leap Racing look to have Pattern-race quality juvenile.

Mortlake will look to take the next step forward when he makes a Group-race debut in the Virgin Bet Solario Stakes at Sandown on Saturday.

The Churchill colt broke the juvenile track record at Leicester on August 13, winning a seven-furlong novice by five lengths in an impressive run under Rossa Ryan.

The performance followed a very green debut at Salisbury in July, where the Ralph Beckett-trained bay was fourth behind Tom Dascombe’s Hot Fuss, who ran with some credit in the Acomb Stakes last week.

The Leicester effort was a big step forward and a more accurate representation of the ability he had shown at home – ability that will be tested further at Sandown this weekend.

Eamonn O’Connor, founder and managing director of owners Quantum Leap Racing, said: “They turn around so quickly and second runs can be so different, so we put a line through Salisbury – it didn’t worry us as we’d seen enough at home to suggest he might be a nice horse.

“What I liked is that he ran in a straight line, he was almost a bit babyish in the last half-furlong and he was looking around a bit so I’m hoping there’s a bit more to come.

“We’ll find out, we’ve got some fairly punchy entries for him at Group Two and Group One level and Saturday will tell us whether we’ve been realistic with those. It’s a good stepping stone for a horse of his profile, it’s the ideal race for him really.”

Beckett has been in flying form recently and is well stocked with smart horses, adding gravitas to a Group entrant who trains alongside some talented stablemates.

O’Connor said: “He’s not short of a smart horse or two, Ralph, he had a treble that day (Leicester) and is absolutely on fire, but then he has been for the last couple of months so there’s no surprise there.”

Mortlake is in the very early days of his career and will be handled with patience, as is the modus operandi of his owners, who have produced several horses to lucrative sales overseas with their approach.

“We’ve got a nice syndicate, we only buy five yearlings a year and punch way above our weight for that,” O’Connor explained.

“We started in 2017 and every single year we’ve had a decent horse, my definition of decent being 90-105 rated. Our model is very obvious, we move them off to Australia or foreign climes at the end of their three-year-old year, replenish the pot and go again.

“Jeremy Brummitt buys our horses and is our de facto racing manager and he does a very good job. We had two horses in our first year, five each year after, maybe six in one year, and to be able to produce a 100-rated horse every year is tremendous – hopefully we can continue it.

“We go through that cycle every year in the hope of unearthing a serious Group horse, in which case we’d be more inclined to keep them racing in the northern hemisphere.

“We do things the right way, we buy horses with clear staying pedigrees and we’re very patient with them. You read about syndicate members wanting a quick return and therefore buying precocious types – we’re the diametric opposite of that.

“We buy horses we know we need to be patient with, we don’t normally see our horses out before August or September so he’s almost precocious for us!”

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