Master Carpenter hopes to carve out the distance in Classic Trial at Sandown

Rod Millman is keen to find out whether a mile and a quarter is within Master Carpenter’s compass by running in the bet365 Classic Trial at Sandown on Friday.

The Mastercraftsman colt ran some fine races as a juvenile last year, but by far and away his most promising race to date was on his three-year-old debut, finishing third behind 2000 Guineas favourite Kingman in the Greenham at Newbury.

Having not yet encountered a distance beyond seven furlongs, Millman admitted he is going into the unknown in the hands of Ryan Moore in today’s Group Three race. “He ran a very good race in the Greenham, we were delighted with him,” he said. “He hasn’t got any big entries, this race came up and it looked a good opportunity for us to find out whether he’ll stay... We are experimenting a bit.”

The favourite for the race is the John Gosden-trained Western Hymn, who looked a potential Derby contender when running away with a conditions event at Newbury.