Hugo Palmer: It wouldn’t surprise me if he put up a big performance

Top trainer and Coral ambassador Hugo Palmer discusses his Glorious Goodwood runner on Tuesday and the day’s other big races.

Goodwood 3.25 – Soldier’s Gold

We’re taking a substantial jump in grade with Soldier’s Gold here, but he’s a horse I’ve liked all the way through, and he’s done everything right from a very young age. His first two runs were pleasing, and while he really seems to have improved since getting his head in front, this will certainly require another big step forward.

We wouldn’t have necessarily chosen stall eight of nine for him, but when we won the race with Galileo Gold we were in stall nine, so we’ve proven it isn’t impossible to win from out there.

He’s looked to me like he’s ready for this step up in trip, and his half-brother Mr McCann stayed an extended mile, so I do think we might see even more improvement from him on Tuesday. He definitely won’t mind the cut in the ground either, so being one of the more experienced horses in the race, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he put up a big performance.

Lennox Stakes thoughts

I had a very good look at this race as we were seriously thinking about running Brad The Brief here, but I think we’ll go to France on Sunday for the Maurice de Gheest instead. Kinross and Al Suhail are in the Maurice de Gheest too, but I see they’ve both been declared here, so it might just be that Sunday’s race is an easier opportunity for our horse.

Holguin has been running very well in these 7f races of late, and he won the Listed race at Chester last time in good fashion on testing ground, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he outran his odds here, as I see he’s priced up as the outsider of the field.