Hugo Palmer blog: ‘I think he can definitely go close here’

3:30 Chelmsford – Under The Sun

Under The Sun has had a really good winter, and I think everybody knows I think quite a lot of this horse. He’s certainly grown and developed through the Winter months, but he did show some smart form at two, and the only blip really was when we ran him in the Convivial at York. With the benefit of hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have run him there, but when you’re favourite for a race worth £100,000, it’s very difficult not to take your chance.

I’d love to be running him on good ground on the turf about now, but there doesn’t seem to be any of that around. I’d also like to be starting him over a mile and a quarter, but there just aren’t the races for him at the moment. I think this is a good starting point for him, and although it does look a good race, I’m hoping he can be competitive in it, and we can base his season around what he does here.

5:15 Chelmsford – Zivaniya

Zivaniya has really improved lately for the fitting of a tongue-tie, and it just seems to have helped him breath in a bit of a rhythm through his races. He’s only creeping up the handicap, and the 2lb rise he’s got for his win last time isn’t overly harsh, so I thought while he’s in good form we might as well crack on and run him again.

He’s drawn slightly wide, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue if Ross Coakley can get him into a nice position, and I think he’s capable of running another really big race here.

5:45 Chelmsford – Souffionne

Souffionne won one of the worst horse races ever run when getting off the mark at Newcastle in November, and he has just struggled a little bit since then. We’ve tried headgear, but that doesn’t really seem to be working, and although he’s not running badly, he’s not looking like winning in it either. We’ve left the headgear off here, and as many followers of the yard will know, this is something we did very successfully with How Impressive, so hopefully it will have a similar effect on Souffionne.

The handicapper is relenting a little bit, so hopefully he’s coming down to a mark he can be competitive off, but I’d say we are going there in hope rather than expectation.

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