Blue Bolt strikes in Distaff heat

Blue Bolt continued her progression with a third straight victory in the Coral Distaff at Sandown.

Beaten into fifth place as an odds-on favourite for her racecourse debut at Southwell in April, Andrew Balding’s filly has not looked back since, bolting up at Windsor in May before following up with a comfortable success at Newbury in June.

She was a 2-1 favourite to complete her hat-trick at Listed level in Esher and having grabbed the lead from an early stage under Colin Keane, the daughter of Blue Point found plenty for pressure in the straight to score by a length from Cajole.

“When I saw the draw we had (stall three), I knew there was no point in taking her back,” said Keane.

“I’m still getting the hang of the place, for a stiff track it’s hard to come from too far back off the pace. When the ground is like that, being on the pace helps and being on a nice filly is an even bigger help.

“It’s such a stiff track, when you turn in on the straight you’re climbing the whole way and I suppose horses struggle to make up ground on it.”

Richard Hannon’s Dubawi gelding Classic came good in the one-mile Coral Challenge.

The five-year-old has often looked better than his bare form, and a switch to front-running tactics under Sean Levey unlocked that potential as he claimed success by a length and a quarter at 6-1.

“I was sick of seeing him be unlucky, looking like he has all the ability in the world, we know that,” said Hannon.

“Today he looked like he was never going to get beaten. Jack (Hannon’s son) said to me a furlong from home ‘is Sean OK, he looks like he’s injured or something, he’s not trying’. He was trying!

“This horse has had a lot of near-misses and he’s an extremely talented horse who is by a stallion (Dubawi) where anything is possible.

“He could well turn out to be a Group horse and could come back to seven furlongs no problem – he’s got loads of speed and loads of ability.”