'You have to keep riding the storm but things are looking brighter' - a better day at the office for Charlie Appleby at Sandown

For all the Classics and global Group 1s Godolphin and Charlie Appleby have plundered, there was a sense at Sandown on Saturday that the team needed to make something happen.

With Native Trail, Hurricane Lane, Adayar and Modern Games retired to the breeding sheds, Appleby has been waiting for a potential star to break the ranks and carry forward the flag at his Moulton Paddocks stables in Newmarket. It is fair to say it has been a long wait.

On a low-key Saturday he had two chances to ignite his and Godolphin's season, but after St Leger hopeful Military Order fluffed his lines at Chester it all rested on Aablan in the Group 3 Solario Stakes, hardly the race anyone would have highlighted at the start of the season as being pivotal to a bloodstock behemoth that is accustomed to playing at the top level.