Hugo Palmer Saturday runners blog: 'He's not without ability but might just need this'

Hugo Palmer has three runners on Saturday, July 18 across both Doncaster and Newbury, all of which the Coral ambassador has previewed in his latest blog.

Hugo Palmer Saturday runners blog - July 18, 2026

Hugo Palmer Saturday runners schedule

• Wait Geordie & Nascent Star - Newbury - 15:37 race odds

• Coca Nova - Doncaster - 18:15 race odds

Newbury 3.37 – Wait Geordie & Nascent Star

This is obviously one of our quieter Saturdays of this midsummer period, with just the three runners, and the first two of them both run in Newbury’s Super Sprint, the track’s well-established sales race sponsored by Weatherbys.

Wait Geordie started the season winning at Bath, and then finished third in the Lily Agnes at Chester, a race we had high hopes of him winning. He then ran disappointingly at Beverley, so we had him gelded, but there was no immediate improvement in his next run, so he’s got a bit to prove here. 

Nascent Star has run well to finish fourth on his two starts, but we are asking quite a lot of him running in this.  However, there is good prize money down to tenth place here, and they are both speedy horses so we’ll see if we can pick up some cash with them, although in future they will both be better off in calmer waters.

Doncaster 6.15 – Coco Nova

Coco Nova is a lovely 2-y-o colt, he’s very much one for next year, but he’s been working away at home, and as he’s a big horse, I think the run will do him good. He’s not without ability, I suspect he might need a run or two before he really tunes into what racing is all about, but we’ll see, we like him a lot and he might surprise us, it just might take time for the penny to drop.

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