Hugo Palmer Saturday runners blog: 'His last piece of work was the best he's done for us'

Hugo Palmer shares his latest Coral ambassador blog, previewing his three runners on Day Four of Ebor Festival as well as at Newmarket and Redcar.

• Watcha Snoop - Newmarket - 1.25 race odds

• Seagulls Eleven - York - 3.00 race odds

• Roaring Legend - York - 3.35 race odds

• Seagolazo - York - 5.20 race odds

• Balon d'Or - Redcar - 7.30 race odds

We did have this horse entered in the big sales race at York on Thursday, but thought that would have been a big task for him on his debut, so have come here instead. He was a horse I was certain was going to win the Lily Agnes at Chester in May, he was ready to go, tuned up, was doing everything right at home, and just as we were getting thoroughly excited by the thought of Chester, he picked up a small injury that meant he had to have a month off.

Since we’ve had him back in full work he hasn’t disappointed me at all, he’s been working well, and he’s absolutely ready to go. I hope he can run well here, it’s a much later start to his career than we’d have thought back in March and April, but he has done well physically in that time. We’re excited to see him race, and I hope he’s a horse for the future. 

When we took the decision to supplement this horse for this race, we weren’t expecting Rosallion to be lining up, as Deauville last weekend was his initial target, but I take the view that we can’t be frightened of one horse, and having paid the supplementary fee, we were always going to run, the owners were keen, and this is worth a lot of money.

I always felt it would suit him, he stayed the easy mile well at Goodwood last time, but he’s got plenty of pace for this seven furlongs trip, and looking at the likes of Quinault, Qirat and Audience, there could be a real pace burn-up, and from a nice draw, which incredibly we’ve got in stall one, we should be able to take a sit, and run at a collapsing pace up front.

That’s the theory at least, as I say we weren’t expecting Rosallion to be here, but he is dropping back to seven furlongs. He is clear on ratings, and if he runs to his best he is the most obvious winner, but we were keen to roll the dice, I think the race could set up very nicely for our horse, and I do think he is overpriced.

We were hugely excited when this horse joined us at the start of the year, and that excitement continued when he won his first three starts, but unfortunately since April he really hasn’t got life together. I did think he ran a much better race dropping back to 1 mile 6 furlongs at Newmarket last time, and this has very much been the plan since then.

He had a wind op prior to running in the Northumberland Plate, and he went there just about ready, although he might not have fully stayed the two miles, and he could have just needed it. The Newmarket run then followed quite quickly as there was simply nowhere else to run him, and while he did run well that day, it might have just come a bit quick.

We’ve finally been able to give him a proper preparation, his last piece of work ahead of this race was without doubt the best piece of work he’s done since he’s been with us, and he looks fantastic. From stall 14 Holly [Doyle] can drop him in, and let him find his position, she shouldn’t have to push or pull him from that draw.

He will have to produce a career best to win at Ebor, but on what he’s been showing at home he could produce a career best. If he can do that, it’s then a case of whether he’s good enough, but I couldn’t be happier with him.

Maybe our luck is changing with the draw this season as this horse has been drawn well in stall five!  He made a little bit of a noise with his breathing at Goodwood last time, which he’d never done before, and I think it just unsettled him. We’ve scoped him since then and he doesn’t have a wind problem, but we’ve been training him in a tongue tie, and he’ll have that on here, to prevent any issues with his breathing.

York is a much flatter, easier track to get into a rhythm on than Goodwood, and I’m very intrigued to see him run a proper race over this ten furlongs trip. He ran well over a mile at Goodwood two runs ago, and Oisin Murphy got off him that day and said try him over further, and being out of a dam by Montjeu, that makes a lot of sense.

This horse had no luck with the draw at Haydock last time, and considering he was drawn on the wrong side, I thought he ran very well. We took the headgear off him as I think he was just sulking a little bit in it, and maybe he was also getting a bit bored by running so often at Chester.

He’s drawn well in four here, at Redcar you have to be drawn low, the bias is so important, so with that luck in his favour, fingers-crossed he can make the most of it.  

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