IT was royalty before racing when Susie Burrage kept a unique appointment in her diary.

As managing director of a specialist recycling company, she was in London to receive the OBE for her services to the environment.

And to cap her historic day, she owned the winner of the opening seven-furlong race for maiden juveniles at Salisbury when Metallo belied odds of 40/1.

A shock to the punters but what about the trainer, Jack Channon? Not a bit of it. The colt had been quietly fancied on his debut at Newbury a fortnight agio when he only beat one home.

Channon, whose father Mick and another former trainer David Elsworth collected the trophy on her behalf, put it simply down to jumping a shadow shortly after the start for his low-key debut.

"He ran very green after that and today he was very much more street wise."

Channon, saddling his second two-year-old winner of the season, will keep Metallo to a similar level for his next outing before probably aiming him higher in the autumn. "He is only a shell of a horse.

"There is plenty of stamina on the dam's side and he will only get better and better. He really is a nice horse for the future."

There was a further turn up in the sprint when Just Glamorous, sidelined for almost a year, led throughout to hold off the fast-finishing Stone Circle at 22/1 to give jockey Gina Mangan her first winner at the track. 

The veteran, who took the corresponding race two years back, can be a little awkward at the start and trainer Chris Mason dispensed with the blinds as an experiment and the ten-year-old flew out of the stalls.

Course director Jeff Smith enjoyed a double but in remarkable contrasting styles, the odds-on Equity Law scoring by three quarters of a length from the unconsidered Key to Cotai but in reality he won more easily than the margin would suggest. "I don't think he was really extended," said Smith. "That was a good performance and he's obviously nice."

Galactic Jack, friendless in the market in the morning when his odds doubled to 20/1 but was eventually returned at 12/1, gave apprentice Harry Davies a nightmare ride in the 12-furlong handicap, yet somehow still won.

He forfeited several lengths when swerving at the entrance to the straight, but the 3lb claimer managed to correct him.

Three furlongs out, however, Galactic Jack suddenly began hanging to his left and drifted to the unfavourable stands side to seemingly drop out of contention as Nader King and Massai Warrior looked as though they would dominate the finish.

All eyes were drawn to the pair until punters suddenly saw Galactic King coming with a powerful finish to prevail by a length.

"He's got lots of abiloty," Davies reported. "Andrew (Balding) put in listed races as he obviously thought a lot about him. He has an engine but is really quirky. He just kept hanging and hanging. In the end, I thought it was better to let him go and keep him going. Thankfully, it paid off."

Eve Johnson Houghton has the lofty target of the Cambridgeshire in mind for Bluelight Bay who took advantage of his falling mark to land the one-mile handicap. Well held in two similar races this term, he was delivered with a strong late challenge. 

"The key has been getting him to relax," she explained. "He was a bit too nervous and having him gelded has definitely helped."