Sandown review

A review of the rest of the action from Sandown Park on Coral-Eclipse day.
Rum victory for Portman
Jonathan Portman can once again take aim at bigger and better prizes with stable star Rumstar, who bagged the second Group Three success of his career when swooping late in the Coral Charge at 11/2 at Sandown Park.
Having scored at the same level on his return to action in the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket the Havana Grey gelding had since failed to feature in the Group Two Temple Stakes at Haydock Park and at the top level in the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Despite being burdened with a penalty for his comeback win the five-year-old demonstrated his talents when coming from off the pace under Rob Hornby to plunder the £85,000 five furlong test.
Victory looked to be heading the way of early leader She’s Quality, who managed to quickly bag the run closest to the rail, but just like when the pair met on the Rowley Mile in May she was picked off by Rumstar, who prevailed by three quarters of a length.
Portman said: “It is fantastic. For any sprinter everything needs to go just right on the day. I don’t think he likes Haydock Park and at Royal Ascot I think we got into top gear too soon and we were a bit wide and it just didn’t work for us.
“We made a conscious decision today just to hang on to him a bit and come through them, which is very risky at Sandown Park as you often don’t get that run and you get a bit of traffic.
“Rob found that gap, and he did it to perfection, but he knows the horse well and he loves the horse as much as I do.
“We didn’t enter him in the King George Stakes at Goodwood as I thought five furlongs for him in that grade was a bit sharp for him. I’m not sure where we will go now to be honest.”
While Rumstar is yet to prove himself in Group One company his triumphant rider believes he is more than capable of winning at the highest level.
Hornby said: “Today he shot through like a good horse with a lot of weight, which isn’t easy to do in this division as these horses keep popping up.
“Haydock Park he has never liked and Ascot is Ascot so let’s not look too much into that so take that out of it and he has had a pretty immaculate season so far.
“I didn’t use my stick on him today and he took off and he hit the line strong. As a feel what he gave me today was better than Newmarket.
“We are going to have to try for a big one as he is a horse that is capable of it as he showed an electric turn of foot today.”