Solario Gold in Juddmonte’s sights at Sandown

Ashley Iveson
August 30, 2024 12:38 pm

Owner hunting Group Three glory with promising juvenile.

Field Of Gold will be following in some illustrious hoofprints if he can add to John Gosden’s record tally in the Sky Bet Solario Stakes at Sandown on Saturday.

The Clarehaven handler, who now trains in partnership with son Thady, has saddled six previous winners of the Group Three contest, with his Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Raven’s Pass (2007) and a pair of top-class milers in Kingman (2013) and Too Darn Hot (2018) featuring on the roll of honour.

Field Of Gold, a Juddmonte-owned son of Kingman, finished third behind subsequent Listed scorer New Century on his Doncaster debut in late June before opening his account with a facile success at Newmarket’s July meeting.

Connections expect to have a clearer idea of his long-term aspirations after he lines up in this weekend’s seven-furlong feature.

Field Of Gold stretches clear of his rivals at Newmarket (David Davies/PA)

“We’re excited to see him. Obviously he won his maiden in good fashion and this is the next step up the ladder we sort of waited for,” said Juddmonte’s European racing manager Barry Mahon.

“He seems in good form and John and Thady are happy with him. The Acomb Stakes at York last week was mentioned, but I think we were always going to sit tight and wait for this.

“He’s a big horse, so we were keen to give him a little bit of time. He probably got to the races plenty early because he was naturally so talented, but he’s had a nice gap from his last race and I think physically he’s done very well.

“John has used this race plenty of times in the past, it can be a very good race and we’re looking forward to seeing if we’re up to this level.”

Chief among Field Of Gold’s rivals are two unbeaten juveniles in Royal Playwright and Matauri Bay.

Andrew Balding’s Royal Playwright looked the part when making a successful start to his career at Salisbury last month under Hayley Turner, and three-time champion jockey Oisin Murphy is looking forward to taking over in the saddle.

He said: “Royal Playwright won well on debut at Salisbury. He’s very well bred and he’s training like a nice horse.”

A brother to Breeders’ Cup winner Aunt Pearl, the Ralph Beckett-trained Matauri Bay has his sights raised after scoring on his introduction at Leicester three weeks ago, with the runner-up Shah doing the form no harm when occupying the same spot in the valuable Convivial Maiden at York.

Trainer Ralph Beckett at York last week (Mike Egerton/PA)

“He was very professional on debut and it was nice to see the second come out and run so well in the Convivial, which must be a nice indicator I suppose to the strength of that race,” said Alex Elliott, racing adviser to Matauri Bay’s part-owners Valmont.

“We’ve got a nice draw (stall two), Sandown is a very fair track, we’re excited to run him and this should tell us where we’re at really.

“John Gosden’s horse looked very good when he won at Newmarket, but he’d had a run, and the horse of Andrew’s beat one of ours (Original Outlaw) at Salisbury and is a very well-bred horse.

“Quite often the Solario is a stallion-making race, when you look through the history of it. If it goes to plan, we can map out the rest of the year. We’re looking forward to it.”