Hugo Palmer Good Friday runners blog: 'He's a worthy favourite to take this prize'

Hugo Palmer shares his latest exclusive blog with Coral, previewing his runners at Newcastle and Lingfield on Good Friday (April 18).

Soldiers Star is among the reserves for this race, but I don’t think he’ll get in, so we also entered him at Lingfield (see below).

Roaring Legend is a gorgeous hose who has done nothing wrong all year, winning all three starts since he came to us, including over course and distance in January. That has obviously seen his rating shoot up, but even off this much higher mark he’s a worthy favourite. 

We were hoping to take him to Dubai, but that didn’t happen, so he has had a short break. His home work’s been good, he looks fantastic, and I don’t feel we’re anywhere near the bottom of him yet, so I hope he can take this on route to bigger and better things.

It looks as if Soldiers Star will be running here rather than Newcastle, on what will be his second run since he was gelded earlier in the year. He got off the mark when winning at Kempton last month, that was over seven furlongs so it’s a slight concern dropping back to six here, and he’s drawn wider than ideal, but I hope he’s versatile enough from a trip perspective, and seems fresh and well at home.

We also run The Flying Seagull in this race. He’s only rated a pound higher than Soldiers Star, and he’s also drawn next to him in stall ten, which again, isn’t ideal. That’s been the theme of his recent runs, we’ve just not had much luck with the draw, but if Richard [Kingscote] can get him away on terms, he could go well.