Opera Ballo put it all together to run his rivals ragged in a star-studded Bet365 Mile at Sandown.
The Godolphin colt has always been held in high regard and bounced out of the stalls to seize the initiative.
He took a length-and-a-half out of the field at that stage and proceeded to make it a good test under William Buick.
Two furlongs out he had his rivals at full stretch with eventual third Zeus Olympios leading the chase.
It was 11/10 favourite Field Of Gold who came through to take second but in receipt of five pounds from the winner, he could never land a real blow.
At the line the deficit wasn’t being reduced and stood at three lengths.
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Appleby said: “When we all declared there wasn’t any pace angle there. It was only yesterday me and William were chatting away and he said we know what we are going to do let him go do what his father did, and that is let him just jump and run.
“This horse is electric from the gates. Will has always said he will take or three lengths out of them from the gates. It was a great ride by William from the front end and it is a track you can do that on. Full credit to the horses in behind as it was always going to be a tough ask once he was given that lead he had and he maintained that gallop well.
“I loved the way he went down to post today. He just hacked down to post and I thought then that he is in a good place. Full credit to the lad who rides him as he has done a great job switching him off. Our plan was once those pace angles dropped out of the race that this is what we do go out there and let him do what his father would do. It is pointless taking horses back if you are fighting with them as you are not going to get the right result at the end.
“I don’t mind horses getting beat if they are galloping it out and doing it the right way around, and he has done that today. People will say he is a fit horse, but he ran in January and he has had a bit of a break since then, but he has got a race under his belt.
“Our plan was always to go from here to the Prix Aga Khan IV and step him back up to nine furlongs as we know he sees the nine furlongs out as we saw that in the Jebel Hatta. I imagine that is where we will aim. Of course the Lockinge is there for us, but Notable Speech is there and, hopefully if it is quick ground, that is where he will be aimed towards.”
Gold team expect improvement
John Gosden said of Field of Gold: “He just needed the race as I said before. He has had one race in nine months so he was going to need the race to bring him forward. You will never beat a front runner around here doing that. I knew William said he was going to do that, but I said to Colin just settle him and bring him with one run.
"He has run a lovely race to be second and I couldn’t be more pleased with the way he has come there. I didn’t expect him to beat that horse when you are trying to take on a front runner around here as they are hard to beat when they get that kind of lead. He has run a nice race here first time back.
“I’m happy to see him come back and run a solid race. It is like a tennis player going into a tournament you need to be match fit and that is how you get match fit.”
Karl Burke said of Zeus Olympios: “He has finished a neck down off Field Of Gold giving him three pounds. You couldn’t say it was a bad run, but I’m obviously disappointed that we have lost our unbeaten record, but the winner had fitness on his side. I see no reason why we won’t be heading for the Lockinge after that. He will definitely come on for the run.
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