group races at Sandown and Chester

after the highlights of York´s splendid Ebor meeting, today´s cards are relatively quiet for a Saturday, although there are group races for 2yo´s at Sandown and the Curragh. At the former track it is the Solario Stakes over 7 furlongs at 15.35 CET, where Native Khan (Ed Dunlop/ Eddie Ahern), impressive winner at Newmarket of his only race so far, looks like starting favourite. Measuring Time (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes) and Titus Mills (Brian Meehan/ Marton Dwyer) are also both unbeaten, but meeting stronger opposition now, and we fancy Godoklphin´s Roayh (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori), who has been mixing it in the best company, to go well. We also expect the Godolphin team´s Long Lashes to go close in the opening listed race for fillies over a mile at 15.05; obvious dangers here are Seta (Luca Cumani/ Jean-Pierre Guillambert) and the unbeaten Decorative (Michael Jarvis/ Philip Robinson), moving up in class.
The Curragh race is the Futurity, also over 7 furlongs (a ridiculous clash) at 17.25. This event has been dominated by Aidan O´Brien and Jim Bolger in recent years and that is likely to be the case again. O´Brien saddles 4 of the 7 runners, with stable jockey Johnny Murtagh aboard Samuel Morse. He has good form, but last time was more than 7 lengths behind Glor Na Mara (Bolger/ Kevin Manning) in the Phoenix Stakes over 6 furlongs here, so the latter must be the logical selection. Also at the Curragh, the speedy Meow (David Wachman/ Murtagh) can win the 2yo listed race over 5 furlongs at 15.55, but the listed race over 1 3/4 miles at 16.25 looks more tricky. John Oxx has won this for the past two years, and now has 2 runners, with Fran Berry partnering Roses for the Lady, runner-up in last year´s Irish Oaks, but top-weight Silverhand (Noel Meade/ Colm O´Donoghue) looks very dangerous; this high-class hurdler and recent Galway winer is also pretty smart on the flat.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Seta - Decorative - Long Lashes
2. Race: Native Khan - Roayh - Measuring Time
3. Race: Spanish Duke - Hanoverian Baron - Sandor
4. Race: Avertor - Judge `N Jury - Rocket Rob
5. Race: Captain Coke - Diman Waters - Panpiper
6. Race: Jehanbux - Bloodsweatandtears - Introvert
7. Race: Spensley - Laudatory - Ballinteni