STEPHENSONS ROCKET is a strong fancy on Sandown’s Thursday evening card, stepping back in trip to a mile – a particularly stiff mile I might add – having failed to get home last time out at Newmarket.
He traveled like the best horse in the race in that ten-furlong affair, hitting the front at the business end but perhaps lacking the fitness to get home on his seasonal reappearance.
I’m not sure he handled the notorious dip either, so there are plenty of reasons to believe we’ll see the real deal in this Listed race, with good ground also very much in his favour.
He has a Derby entry and his trainer Ed Walker rates him highly, so I’m firmly of the opinion the 12/1 quotes underestimate his chance with improvement from his first run very likely.
Chief danger to the son of Teofilo looks to be the odds-on favourite Without Parole, who encountered a setback when 12/1 for the Group One 2000 Guineas.
An unbeaten John Gosden-trained son of Frankel is quite a daunting prospect, but he’s still got to go out and do it and 4/6 quotes are there to be shot at.
1pt each-way Stephensons Rocket @12/1, 19:05 Sandown, Thursday (1,2,3, 1/4 with Bet365)
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