By Simon Jackson at Sandown. 

Time Test impressed with the manner of his victory in the British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden Stakes on the first of the two-day meeting at Sandown Park on Friday.

The two-year-old son of Dubawi and Passage Of Time was narrowly beaten on his debut at Newbury last month at odds of 8-11. He was once again sent off odds-on at 5-6 and made immediate amends for the earlier defeat when scoring a shade cosily, despite the rain-softened ground.

Time Test, owned by Khalid Abdullah and trained by Roger Charlton, raced close to the pace for James Doyle before easing to the lead and scoring by two and three quarter lengths in the seven furlong Class 5 contest.

The victory delighted connections of the colt who holds entries in the Royal Lodge Stakes, Dewhurst Stakes and Racing Post Trophy and Charlton revealed that he does not intend to step his charge up in class or distance too quickly.

“We liked what we saw and we thought we were going to see it first time,” Charlton said. “James said he didn’t like the soft ground today and it was a grind up the hill with the headwind.

“I am not sure what we will do next, but we won’t jump too high too quickly.”

The feature race of the day, the ROA Owners Jackpot Handicap – a one mile Class 3 – was won by Basem for Saeed Bin Suroor and Richard Hughes.

The victory for the Godolphin runner followed news that the large and successful racing operation – whose horses in Newmarket are trained by Bin Suroor at Godolphin Stables and Charlie Appleby at Moutlon Paddocks – are shutting down one of their other stable yards in the area.

“Godolphin today moved the horses out of one of our smaller yards in Newmarket, Highfields,” Godolphin’s managing director, Hugh Anderson, said on Thursday.

“Those horses have been distributed around other Godolphin or Darley training yards in the town and, as a result, a number of staff have also been redeployed within the company here or in Dubai.

“With fewer horses to train, there has unfortunately been a need to let a relatively small number of yard staff go.”

Sandown are racing again on Saturday where they stage a seven race card that includes the Group 3 European Wealth Solario Stakes and the Group 3 Thoroughbred Breeders´ Association Atalanta Stakes. First race is at 2.05pm.

Read ‘Horse Talk with Simon Jackson’ at London24 for the latest horse racing news.