Hugo Palmer Saturday runners blog: 'If things went well we could have had a Chester treble'

Ascot 1.45 – Glorious Game

A busy Saturday, with runners at four tracks, starting at Ascot with Glorious Game.  It’s the obvious step for a Listed winner to go for a Group 3, she is unbeaten, but equally, she is only rated 88. That either means she’s got a long way to climb to be competitive at this level, or, as I say, it’s the logical next step up the ladder. 

I’m very interested to see how she goes here, I think she is ready to step up to seven furlongs, but she’s in the big sales race at York, and we’re keen to go there, so I didn’t want to step her up to seven in the Sweet Solera and then drop back to six at York, so we’ll stick with six here and then look to step her up later in the year.

York 2.00 – Stratusnine

Stratusnine hasn’t won as many races in his life as he should have done for a horse of his talent, but he’s in really good form, and he loves York, having finished second there on all three starts.  I think he’s probably drawn in the right place in stall nine, he has a top class rider on him in James Doyle, and I hope he can go well off a mark I still think he’s ahead of, but these big sprints are hard to win.

Ascot 2.20 – Cheshire Dancer

Cheshire Dancer saves her best performances for Ascot, including a win in this race twelve months ago, but she does need to return to her best form to figure again here.  It’s a small field but I hope they will go a good gallop.  Her bloods were all wrong after her Pontefract run last time, they are now right again, so we can put a line through that.

She ran well here at the Royal meeting, and if she can step forward from that level of performance, she could well be competitive here again.

Chester 3.10 – Velociraptor

I wasn’t going to run this horse here, but with only five others entered, it was just too tempting to ignore.  He’s drawn well in stall two, and if he reproduces his third place at Newmarket behind a well-regarded Ballydoyle colt, he should be hard to beat here.

York 3.42 – Desert Smoke

James Doyle also rides our other York runner.  We were delighted with Desert Smoke’s debut run at Newmarket, I thought she ran really well, and this doesn’t look quite as strong a race.  Only five line up against her, I think she will step forward well from Newmarket, and I’m hopeful she will go very well.

Chester 3.48 - Tricky Tel

This horse loves Chester almost as much as his owners, he’s in great order, looks fantastic, and he has a decent draw in a small field.  He looks to have an obvious chance, and I hope it plays out like that.  David Probert is riding plenty of winners for us, and this is another strong ride for him.

Newcastle 4.00 – Penny Time

This race has divided, with both legs attracting the maximum 14 runners.  Penny Time is a soft ground or all-weather horse, hence why we’re here, but he’s had a few weeks off, so he might just need this run.  His work has been fine, the lad who rides him here suggested we put some headgear, so he’ll have cheekpieces on, and the hope is we geT this run into him, and then the rain might come and we can keep hm going.

Chester 4.58 – Nolton Cross

Nolton Cross still hasn’t won on turf, but he ran really well here to finish second last time, so that lack of a turf win doesn’t unduly concern me, and if he can repeat that, he should go close.  All three of our Chester runners are in small fields, and are drawn well, so if everything went right – which it rarely does! – I thought we could have a treble here.

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