Raaheeb plummets in Derby betting after smooth Classic Trial triumph

Raaheeb, a full brother to the exceptional Baaeed, is top-priced at 10-1 to emulate his sire, Sea The Stars, by winning the Derby at Epsom in June after a convincing in the Group Three Classic Trial at Sandown on Friday.

Owen Burrows’s impeccably bred colt, who is also a full brother to the trainer’s 2023 King George winner, Hukum, was unruly at the stalls but travelled comfortably for Rossa Ryan once the race was underway.

His smooth progress to the two-furlong pole was in marked contrast to the favourite, Aidan O’Brien’s Action, who was slow to stride, looked reluctant in the early stages and then struggled to raise a finishing as Ryan and Raaheeb struck for home.

Raaheeb then stayed on strongly up the hill to the line to maintain his unbeaten record after two starts, with Charlie Appleby’s Al Zanati three-and-a-quarter lengths adrift in second.

Baaeed did not see a racecourse until two days after the Derby in his three-year-old season, while Hukum was a six-year-old by the time of his biggest wins, in the Coronation Cup and King George.

That might pose a question as to whether the Derby, on 6 June, could come too soon in Raaheeb’s career, but for moment he is as short as 8-1 to become the second horse in the last six runnings of Sandown’s Classic Trial to go on to win the sport’s premier Classic. O’Brien trains the pair currently heading the betting in Benvenuto Cellini and Pierre Bonnard.

“To be honest, I came here today thinking if we finished in the frame, I would be pleased,” Burrows said, “so to win like he did, it’s surprised me a little bit.

“If he had got beat today I wouldn’t have been disappointed, as long as he ran a nice race. It was a big learning curve today and we chucked him into the deep end because we wanted to know what’s what, and got a nice answer.

“I don’t want to commit to Epsom at this stage, and there’s [Royal] Ascot and then the Irish Derby, so we will have to see. I don’t think I’ve had one as good as this three-year-old-wise, and not with his potential at this stage. He’s better than Hukum was at this stage. He’s an important horse and we have to make sure we get it right.”

William Buick rides Opera Ballo to success in the bet365 Mile at Sandown. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Opera Ballo got away to a flying start in the day’s main supporting race, the Bet365 Mile, and never looked likely to be caught on the way to a three-length defeat of last year’s St James’s Palace Stakes winner, Field Of Gold.

“This horse is electric out of the gates and Will [Buick, his jockey] has always said he’ll take two or three lengths out of them out of the gates,” Charlie Appleby, the winner’s trainer, said. “Full credit to the horses in behind for getting so close.”

Opera Ballo is now likely to step up slightly in trip for the Group One Prix D’Ispahan at Longchamp in May, while Field Of Gold is priced up at around 100-30 for the Group One Lockinge Stakes at Newbury in May.

“You’ll never beat a front-runner around here when they go off like that,” John Gosden, Field Of Gold’s trainer, said. “He’s only had one race in nine months, and he was going to need it to bring him forwards.”

Montregard can strike gold for McManus

Even by his own exalted standards, JP McManus has had a remarkable campaign over jumps in Britain this season, and his familiar green-and-gold colours will be aboard the likely favourites, Jonbon and Montregard, in the feature events on the Jumps Finale card at Sandown on Saturday.

Victory for both would take McManus’s prize money haul for the campaign to within a whisker of £3m, with a yawning gap of more than £2m to Rich and Susannah Ricci, the runners-up in the owners’ list despite winning both the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup at Cheltenham in March.

He may be forced to settle for just one more win on the final afternoon, however, as Jonbon, the Celebration Chase winner in 2023 and 2024, is now 10 years old, was beaten in the race 12 months ago, and looks more like a two-and-a-half miler these days.

Montregard (3.30), though, arrives with a persuasive profile for the Bet365 Gold Cup, having bypassed both Cheltenham and Aintree since a convincing success at Ascot in February.

Saturday’s race will be Montregard’s first start at further than three miles, but he has shown every sign of being suited to a marathon trip, recorded a strong time in victory last time out and is just 4lb higher in the weights.

Sandown 1.45 A fiercely-competitive juvenile event but Way Of Stars may have crept in a few pounds light off 115 for his handicap debut. He was rated 88 for his latest start on the Flat in September 2025 and posted a strong time when edging home by a neck at Taunton in March.

Leicester 2.05 A low draw is a significant advantage over this six-furlong track and the speedy Zoulu Chief could be hard to peg back from stall three under Billy Loughnane, who has a 24pc strike-rate for the five-year-old’s trainer, Heather Main.

Sandown 2.20 Gary and Josh Moore’s Blow Your Wad has posted a series of useful efforts in handicaps on his last three starts and has a few pounds in hand of this field on the ratings as he heads back into graded company.

Haydock 2.35 Great Acclaim was a long way below his best in the Lincoln at Doncaster last month but that was his first start since October and his usual headgear was left off. The blinkers return here and Eve Johnson Houghton’s five-year-old is 2lb lower in the weights, just 1lb higher than his mark when finishing a close second at Ascot in September.

Sandown 2.55 He had a hard race in Grade One company over two-and-a-half miles just 15 days ago, but Solness also skipped Cheltenham in March so could still be relatively fresh and could also find more for the return to a stiff two miles here.