Rock Montreal isn’t the pick on the bare form heading into Saturday’s Group 3 BetMGM Solario Stakes at Sandown, but he’s oozing potential.
Indeed, such was the impression he made at Yarmouth on debut on August 14 he is the clear favourite for this weekend’s seven-furlong contest and as short as 5/4 at Sky Bet and Paddy Power.
A 1,000,000gns yearling, Rock Montreal is entered in the Group 2 Betfred Champagne Stakes and the Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes later in the season, and he showcased his qualities on debut when stretching clear to win by two-and-three-quarter lengths under Ray Dawson.
“I think he was deserving of those entries,” trainer Roger Varian said at Yarmouth after he landed his first two-year-old win of the campaign with the Blue Point colt, who races in the Godolphin blue.
He impressed our Timeform analyst, too, the Yarmouth race report reading:
“Looked potentially smart, value for extra considering his sectionals for the final 2f were appreciably quicker than anything else; waited with, progress 2f out, quickened to lead approaching final 1f, went clear under just hands-and-heels riding.”
The large P attached to his rating of 100 denotes that the horse is capable of much better form and open to significant improvement, which helps to explain his shortening odds with five horses amongst the six-day entries higher in the Timeform ratings heading into the race.
They are Sonic Angel (110p), Sergei Diaghilev (109p), Alfred Wallace (109), Mia Fantasia (102p) and Celestia (102p).
Perhaps crucially, though, the Gosden stable don’t have a runner in this year’s renewal.
They often run a smart two-year-old in this race with Kingman (2013), Too Darn Hot (2018), Reach For The Moon (2021) and Field Of Gold (2024) winning the Solario for the Clarehaven yard in the last 13 years.
Timeform have attached a large P to eight horses running in the Solario this century and three of them won, including two of the above; Kingman (106P), South Seas (104P, 2016) and Too Darn Hot (96P), with Vacamonte, Leos Lucky Star, Brorocco, Pursur and Desert Hero all failing to get the job done.
Vacamonte, 107P in 2000, particularly burnt the fingers of punters, finishing unplaced at odds of 1/4.
A win for Rock Montreal in the Solario would continue a good run in the race for owners Godolphin who landed the contest in 2017, 2022 and 2023 with Masar, Silver Knott and Aablan, respectively, for Charlie Appleby.
Varian has had much less ammunition for Godolphin than that trainer, but he has a tidy record nonetheless for the boys in blue.
He’s six from 29 at 20.69% in the UK for Godolphin, the star of the show being 2016 Lockinge Stakes winner Belardo, while Avicenna won a Listed race at two for the partnership last year before finishing second in this year’s Craven.
How good will Rock Montreal prove to be? We should have a much better idea after Saturday’s Solario Stakes. For now he is all Potential (with a large P).
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