Sale Shark blooms in Roses Stakes

Hugo Palmer’s Sale Shark turned the tables on hot favourite Adonius to claim top honours in the Julia Graves Roses Stakes at York.

It is little over three weeks since the pair clashed in the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood, which saw the Rebecca Menzies-trained Adonius lose his unbeaten record at the fourth attempt, but finish an honourable second to Pershaada, with Sale Shark a couple of lengths behind in fourth.

As is his wont Adonius was soon bowling along in front in this five-furlong Listed contest, but champion jockey Oisin Murphy produced 17-2 shot Sale Shark with a well-timed challenge to get up and beat the 2-1 market leader by a length and a quarter.

Palmer said: “I’m obviously thrilled with him. He got a lovely tow into it – it’s so rare a race pans out as you expect it to. Normally you have plan A, B and C and go to plan G, but it went very smoothly.

“He’s just growing up all the time. I trained his sister, New Providence, who won the Summer Stakes here 11 years ago. She was even smaller than him and she trained on as a three-year-old, so that gives this horse a future going forwards.

“I guess we’ll go to Doncaster for the Flying Childers, and if that went well and he was in the first three there, we’d probably be looking at the Breeders’ Cup for the Juvenile Turf Sprint.”

There were jubilant scenes in the winner’s enclosure after Sondad narrowly prevailed in the Sky Bet Constantine Handicap.

Trained locally by Mick and David Easterby, he was ridden by Mick’s granddaughter Jo Mason and held on by a nose from Far Above Dream at 17-2 to land another valuable prize after striking at the Curragh three weeks ago.

Mason said: “I finished just behind the second at Goodwood but he found that all happening a bit quick going downhill.

“Now he’s on a high mark that little bit of cut just helped him, although he does go on anything.

“It means so much more when it’s for family and they’ve been so good to me. I’ve ridden this horse on all bar two runs I think – he’s a real character.”

The Sky Bet Dav Reid Finale Handicap brought the Ebor Festival to a close and it was Roger Varian’s top-weight Raamee (13-8 favourite) who repeated last month’s course and distance success in the John Smith’s Cup to land the spoils under Ray Dawson.