Hugo Palmer Saturday runners blog: 'She goes there in the form of her life'

Chester 1.50 – Koodini

A busy day, with runners across the north of England, and varying degrees of fortune with the draws for our eight runners.  We start at our local track with Koodini, who, in stall ten, has been done no favours by his draw.  However there are four newcomers drawn inside him, so hopefully his experience will help him break well and overcome some of that difficulty.

He ran well here on his debut, I felt he should have finished third that day, he was just hampered on the run to the line, which cost him all chance of being placed.  The step up in trip should help him, we’ve been happy with his work at home since that first run, and we’re looking forward to this, aside from the poor draw.

Catterick 2.27 – Flybar

We struggled with Flybar last year, but she does look to be a stronger filly this year.  She was also a little bit keen in her racing last season, so we’ve come back to the minimum trip here.  She’s a very well-bred daughter of Ardad, and so it would be fantastic if we could win a race with her.  This will tell us plenty. 

Beverley 2.48 – Wait Geordie

Wait Geordie has been done no favours with the draw either, as stall ten over five furlongs here is very hard to overcome.  We were disappointed with him at Chester as we expected more that day, so we’ve put the visor on him here to see if it sharpens him up, but as I say, the draw bias here makes life very tricky for him.

Carlisle 3.10 – Patagonia Girl

This race should have been run at Haydock this Saturday but that meeting was switched to Carlisle and we were happy to follow suit with Patagonia Girl.  She’s a well-bred filly who has won her handicaps, so we’re looking for black type for her, if she could finish third in a race like this it would increase her broodmare value considerably.

She was so good at Chester when winning there earlier this month, obviously this does require a big step up in class, but she comes here in the form of her life, and takes on some horses who aren't in the best of form or who are having the first start of their season.  Also, if the rain does stay away and it's quick ground, she will love that and some of the others won't.

One who needs some ease in the ground is Estrange, she was well fancied for last year's Arc at one stage, so we're under no illusions that we're not in that sort of league, but there are reasons to take her on here.  Our filly probably will run again in some big handicaps, but our main aim this season is to try to get that all important black type with her.

Chester 3.30 – Roman Dragon

Course specialist Roman Dragon is drawn in seven, which we think is fine.  He's never won over seven furlongs but he has run well over it, including finishing second at Haydock, a result that could be marked up anyway as it wasn't at Chester!

We just felt that if he didn't run here this weekend, there wasn't a suitable race for him at Chester until the Queensferry Stakes in August, he's in good nick and he's come out of his victory here earlier this month very well indeed.

He's the sort of horse that will run at the big meetings, he could well run at Epsom, he's in the Wokingham at Royal Ascot, and then we may well leave him alone in July and bring him back for the Queensferry, but we’ll see.

Carlisle 3.45 – Laureate Crown

This is the other race that should have been run at Haydock, last Saturday.  We really liked this horse’s chance that day, so the loss of the race was disappointing, but understandable in the circumstances.  My reading of the weather forecast is that they might get some rain ahead of Saturday, which would help Laureate Crown.

He’s in great nick, we’re drawn a little bit wide but he’ll be ridden patiently so that hopefully won’t be an issue.  I’m sure they’ve watered ahead of the two day meeting, but if the jockeys came back and said it was riding fast, we could give this a swerve, hopefully that won’t be the case.

Chester 4.05 – Ruby’s Angel

Ruby’s Angel is yet another runner who has been done no favours by the draw, in 12 here.  She has come on really well from her run here at the May meeting, we felt she would need that run, and she still only got narrowly beaten by a filly who had had a run. She's definitely improved for that run, but Oisin [Murphy] will have to be clever from that stall.

Chester 4.38 – Home Hero

Home Hero is having his first run of the year, he will certainly come forward for the run and typically he's the one of ours today who has been drawn really well, in stall two.  He ran over a mile last season so we're stepping him up in trip here, which I think will suit him, whether he's good enough to go and win this on his reappearance I don't know, but I do think, and hope, he's a better horse than his current rating of 72.

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