Rumstar leads Sandown Charge for Portman

Rumstar finished with a flourish to get back on the winning trail in the Coral Charge at Sandown.

Having finished last season with a Listed success in Ascot’s Rous Stakes, Jonathan Portman’s sprinter picked up where he left off when landing the Group Three Palace House at Newmarket in May.

The five-year-old subsequently struggled in the Temple Stakes at Haydock and the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot, but dropping back to Group Three class, the 11-2 shot picked up well inside the last of five furlongs to get up and beat the front-running She’s Quality by three-quarters of a length.

Portman felt Rumstar had valid reasons for his last two runs, saying: “Like with every sprint race, everything needs to go just right on the day and at Haydock it didn’t.

“I don’t think he likes Haydock and I certainly don’t! At Royal Ascot I just think he got into top gear a bit too soon, he was a bit wide and it just didn’t work for him.

“We made a conscious decision today to hang on to him a bit and come through them, which is very risky at Sandown because if you don’t get that run you can hit a bit of traffic.

“Rob (Hornby, winning jockey) found that gap, he did it to perfection. He knows the horse well and he loves the horse.

“We didn’t enter him at Goodwood, we thought five furlongs there might not suit him.”