Coral Racing Ambassador, Hugo Palmer, provides an exclusive preview ahead of the third day of the Chester May Meeting, including his two runners in the Chester Cup.

13:30 Chester – Victoria Falls

She’s a lovely filly Victoria Falls, and as well as going on any ground, she has the most wonderful attitude, so she certainly deserves to win more races. This is a very competitive race with plenty of prize money on offer, but I just have a suspicion she’s improved from four to five, so she could go well.

She has a lovely draw, Hayley Turner is on board, and conditions should be absolutely fine, so I’m really looking forward to running her.

14:35 Chester – Box To Box

Box To Box loves Chester, and I don’t think he’s ever ran a bad race there. He probably just found the ground a bit too soft for him at this meeting last year, but he still ran an admirable race, and the quicker conditions on Friday should be very much to his liking.

He will need to run a career-best on here to win off a mark of 94, but he’s a big horse who’s run well in Bahrain this year, and with the assistance of the champion jockey in the saddle, he might just be up to winning again.

15:40 Chester – Solent Gateway

Solent Gateway has had his wind tweaked again after a few disappointing efforts, and hopefully that can have the same positive effect as when he had his wind done last year. He was very keen last time we ran him in the Chester Cup when we tried to hold him up, so I think we’ll be a bit more forward on him this time, and he has the ideal draw to hopefully be ping the gates and be very positive.

He was still there with chance despite pulling so hard last time he ran in the race, so if he relaxes and drops the bit this year, then I think he can run a really big race.

15:40 Chester – Zoffee

Everybody has been saying to me how great it is that Zoffee has landed the plum draw in stall 1, but I’m not sure it’s ideal. When you’re right on the inside in a race like this, you’re in danger of horses coming back at you, and you need a lot of luck in running. Harry (Davies) is going to have to be very clever to get the horse some racing room and get him settled, and I’m just praying he gets the breaks, because if you are looking to improve turning for home and the horses in front of you aren’t improving, then you are going to get a bit stuck. There’s never a Chester Cup without a hard-luck story, and I’m just praying we can avoid being just that.

He definitely goes there in better order than last year, he’s 3lb better off at the weights, and I think he has really solid claims, so I’d probably say he’s our best chance of the week.

16:50 Chester – Order Of Malta

We’ll have to see how the ground is for Order Of Malta as it could just end up being a bit lively for him. It’s been quick ground all week, and it’s set to be a lovely sunny day on Thursday, so he just might find the underfoot conditions quicker than ideal.

Having said that, he’s in really good order at home, and we might not have seen the best of him, so providing he does handle conditions, then it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he ran a big race.

Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador