Hugo Palmer Saturday Blog | Doncaster & Kempton
26 Mar 2026
Coral Racing Ambassador, Hugo Palmer, previews his two runners across the cards on Saturday, including a lively outsider in the Spring Mile Handicap and an improving four-year-old at Kempton who is part-owned by Sir Alex Ferguson.
14:25 Doncaster – Vincent Rocks
Although we’ve had runners on the all-weather here and further afield throughout the winter months, there is something still special about this first weekend of the turf Flat season. It is exciting and there’s a strong argument for saying it is a date that should be heralded more, which is something that the National Trainers’ Federation, of which I am the new President, is proposing.
We’re sending one runner to Doncaster. This race has been the target for Vincent Rocks for a long time, and he’s done very well over the winter. Having won his first two starts, he was a bit disappointing at Newbury on his final start but he came back a bit sore and wasn’t moving well after that, so there were plenty of reasons to put a line through that run.
Prior to that he had done very little wrong when winning those races, he is still very lightly raced so may lack some experience for a race of this nature but we’ve always thought he was better than his mark. He won with some cut in the ground on debut, albeit on summer ground and not March, so while it remains to be seen if he handles good to soft, there’s every reason to hope he will.
His work has been spot on and he’s absolutely ready to go and run a big race. He’s drawn very high and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not but we’ll find out. I am very much looking forward to this.
14:42 Kempton – Triple Double A
This horse picked up an injury at the Curragh last August. We stepped him up in trip that day as we thought it would suit, and he proved that when winning on his reappearance at Newcastle last month. It’s a short straight at Kempton so we don’t want to be too far back turning in, but he’s drawn nicely in the middle of them in stall seven, so his rider shouldn’t have to do too much to get a nice pitch.
He gets in this very valuable race off a very low weight, and he’s going to be single figure odds for it, which is exactly why the owners kept him in training as a four-year-old. I hope he can justify that decision.
Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador
14:25 Doncaster – Vincent Rocks
Although we’ve had runners on the all-weather here and further afield throughout the winter months, there is something still special about this first weekend of the turf Flat season. It is exciting and there’s a strong argument for saying it is a date that should be heralded more, which is something that the National Trainers’ Federation, of which I am the new President, is proposing.
We’re sending one runner to Doncaster. This race has been the target for Vincent Rocks for a long time, and he’s done very well over the winter. Having won his first two starts, he was a bit disappointing at Newbury on his final start but he came back a bit sore and wasn’t moving well after that, so there were plenty of reasons to put a line through that run.
Prior to that he had done very little wrong when winning those races, he is still very lightly raced so may lack some experience for a race of this nature but we’ve always thought he was better than his mark. He won with some cut in the ground on debut, albeit on summer ground and not March, so while it remains to be seen if he handles good to soft, there’s every reason to hope he will.
His work has been spot on and he’s absolutely ready to go and run a big race. He’s drawn very high and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not but we’ll find out. I am very much looking forward to this.
14:42 Kempton – Triple Double A
This horse picked up an injury at the Curragh last August. We stepped him up in trip that day as we thought it would suit, and he proved that when winning on his reappearance at Newcastle last month. It’s a short straight at Kempton so we don’t want to be too far back turning in, but he’s drawn nicely in the middle of them in stall seven, so his rider shouldn’t have to do too much to get a nice pitch.
He gets in this very valuable race off a very low weight, and he’s going to be single figure odds for it, which is exactly why the owners kept him in training as a four-year-old. I hope he can justify that decision.
Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador
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