Roger Varian is looking forward to Rock Montreal's second outing in the Group 3 BetMGM Solario Stakes, but is honest in his assessment of the task in hand.
The Godolphin-owned son of Blue Point is the 2/1 favourite for the seven-furlong contest despite having improvement to find on the bare form of his taking debut success at Yarmouth on August 14.
Varian said on the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: "He's a lovely horse. He's a very strong individual, very well made, an attractive horse as he ought to be I suppose for what he cost last October.
"He's got a great mind, he's very relaxed and he has always looked good at home. You want to see it on the track and although you could argue he didn't beat much at Yarmouth I thought the second half of that race, when the penny dropped and he clicked into gear, I thought he was visually impressive.
"I think often they are priced shorter than form and that's probably the case in this race with the once or twice-raced horses. Often the market looks upon potential stronger than fact and we have to prove ourselves.
"We're looking forward to running him again, but he has to step up markedly on what he did at Yarmouth.
"They can get quicker with racing but he has never really looked a sprinter to me. All the work building up to his debut, the experienced guys in the saddle at home felt he worked like a seven-furlong horse.
"He looks to me like a seven-furlong two-year-old, miling three-year-old, but he has only run once and we often need racecourse evidence to settle on optimum distance."
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