Coral Racing Ambassador, Hugo Palmer takes a look at his runners on day two of the Ebor Festival at York, including the four he sends out in the Class 2 Nursery Handicap at 16:45!

14:25 York – Glorious Game & Weekend Roar

Of the five entries that we’d hoped to run in this valuable sales race, only two have made the final field, which shows how hard it is to get a run when there is so much prize money up for grabs. I understand that you really have to run if you want to get the opportunity and that’s what we’ve seen here.

Aidan O’Brien has declared his Group 1 winner, Sun Goddess. Given the penalty structure for this race, she has the look of being a bit of a penalty kick here.  Although she’s won a Group 1, she only gets penalised as a Group 3 winner would and I do think the issue of the weights structure for this race is something York and the sponsors, Goffs, should take a look at.

So, Sun Goddess will take a world of beating. These races weren’t really introduced for the big battalions to go and win a big prize pot, they are more about smaller owners having a crack at big money, however, of course connections are fully entitled to run her.  

Of my two that have got in Weekend Roar would be helped by any rain that falls. He’s crying out for seven furlongs but since he won at Newmarket, two runs ago, we made the plan with the owners to chase the prize money and he ran well in a valuable race at Naas last time, finishing fourth. He was tough at Newmarket and I hope he can run well again here but I think his real winning chance will be in the 6 ½ furlongs sales race at Doncaster next month.

Glorious Game is another who is crying out for seven furlongs but her owners live in America and this has been the target all year. She is a Listed winner, albeit that was a dead-heat and we’ve known since then that she needed further. However, I don't see any reason why she can’t run well here and she is the pick of Oisin Murphy.

York 16.45 – Mia Fantasia, Koodini, High Hazard & Regal Tiger

All four of ours have got into this £100,000 nursery but the top weight, Big Cigar, is also declared for Wednesday’s Acomb Stakes. It will be frustrating if he is taken out of this race but it wouldn't altogether be a surprise.

Mia Fantasia went into plenty of notebooks after a luckless run at Goodwood. I have not yet managed to get to the bottom of how he managed to get so far behind that day but he was also slowly away when he won at Carlisle on his debut. Hopefully he can jump out of the stalls better here and give himself a chance.

York is the sort of track where you can come from behind and weave your way through the horses if you get that bit of luck in the running. I do think he is a very well-handicapped horse too. The form of his third at Ascot behind the subsequent Vintage Stakes winner looks strong and Marco Ghiani is very good at getting horses out of the stalls. If we can get away on terms, I think he is the best of mine.

Of the other three, I feel Regal Tiger is the best handicapped. He should appreciate the seven-furlong trip and any ease in the ground would also be in his favour.

Koodini knuckled down really well to win at Catterick last time. This is much deeper water but we can always go back to shallower waters next time and with this sort of prize money on offer, I think we need to take the opportunity and have a go.

High Hazard didn’t handle the track at Goodwood as we’d hoped last time but that can certainly happen there. His work since has been very pleasing, although he’s just been struggling to put everything together on the track. The sensible option might have been to run him in a smaller race and try to build his confidence, however; owners get into the game to have runners in races like this, at meetings like York. With such great prize money on offer, I feel it’s the right thing to support these races and take our chance.

Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador