Hugo Palmer Saturday Preview: I’m really excited to get him on the track
14 Oct 2023
Coral Racing Ambassador, Hugo Palmer, previews his two runners at Newmarket and York.
We had five runners at Chester on Saturday which we were really looking forward to, but sadly that meeting has fallen victim to the weather, but I think Chester always knew it was a risk holding a meeting this late in the year being so close to the River Dee. I was also going to run Watcha Matey at Newmarket, but the ground has got pretty testing down there in the last 24 hours, and we know he prefers top of the ground, so we’ve decided to take him out.
We only have the two runners on Saturday now, but Zoffee is one of my favourite horses in the yard, and Wonder Kid is a young horse I’m really looking forward to, so hopefully they’ll both run big races.
14:40 Newmarket – Zoffee
He obviously ran really well in this race last year, so we’ve had it on our radar for a while to bring him back, and I’m looking forward to running him again. Frankie Dettori got off him that day and said he stayed well, ran a really good race, but just needs to come down in the weights a little bit. We do come here off the same mark as last year, but since then he has ran a career-best when he was second in the Chester Cup, so hopefully he can go even closer this time round.
Following that run in the Chester Cup, he did very well at Royal Ascot but didn’t quite stay over two and a half miles, then we ran him back too quickly in the Northumberland Plate after that, so I think he’s probably fared better than the bare result on a few of his runs this year.
His work at home has been super of late, so we’ve been really happy with him, and he looks absolutely tremendous. We’ve freshened him up and gave him a couple of months off and he seems to have really benefited from that, so I’m hoping we have him in peak form for this.
I always thought he was a fast ground horse, but it was bottomless on Chester Cup day, and he went through it absolutely fine, so although I suspect Gordon Elliott’s horse Pied Piper could take some stopping, I think our horse is capable of running a really big race.
15:05 York – Wonder Kid
Wonder Kid makes his debut over at York, and he’s a horse I’ve been really happy with at home. He’s by Belardo out of a Verglas mare, and we paid an awful lot for him, I think we paid £125,000 and he was only a £10,000 foal, but he’s an extremely good-looking horse.
His first few pieces of work earlier in the summer were like watching paint dry, but he’s really appeared on our radar in the last month or so, and I’d say he’s a different type of two-year-old to the majority of others we have in the yard, so I’m really excited to get him on the track.
Like all of our two-year-olds, he’ll probably be in need of the experience, but I’m sure the penny will drop with him, and he’ll run a really nice race. I think he’ll handle the cut in the ground, so my only worry would be whether greenness holds him back, but we’ll be there to give it our best shot.
SATURDAY RACING – LATEST BETTING HERE
Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador
We had five runners at Chester on Saturday which we were really looking forward to, but sadly that meeting has fallen victim to the weather, but I think Chester always knew it was a risk holding a meeting this late in the year being so close to the River Dee. I was also going to run Watcha Matey at Newmarket, but the ground has got pretty testing down there in the last 24 hours, and we know he prefers top of the ground, so we’ve decided to take him out.
We only have the two runners on Saturday now, but Zoffee is one of my favourite horses in the yard, and Wonder Kid is a young horse I’m really looking forward to, so hopefully they’ll both run big races.
14:40 Newmarket – Zoffee
He obviously ran really well in this race last year, so we’ve had it on our radar for a while to bring him back, and I’m looking forward to running him again. Frankie Dettori got off him that day and said he stayed well, ran a really good race, but just needs to come down in the weights a little bit. We do come here off the same mark as last year, but since then he has ran a career-best when he was second in the Chester Cup, so hopefully he can go even closer this time round.
Following that run in the Chester Cup, he did very well at Royal Ascot but didn’t quite stay over two and a half miles, then we ran him back too quickly in the Northumberland Plate after that, so I think he’s probably fared better than the bare result on a few of his runs this year.
His work at home has been super of late, so we’ve been really happy with him, and he looks absolutely tremendous. We’ve freshened him up and gave him a couple of months off and he seems to have really benefited from that, so I’m hoping we have him in peak form for this.
I always thought he was a fast ground horse, but it was bottomless on Chester Cup day, and he went through it absolutely fine, so although I suspect Gordon Elliott’s horse Pied Piper could take some stopping, I think our horse is capable of running a really big race.
15:05 York – Wonder Kid
Wonder Kid makes his debut over at York, and he’s a horse I’ve been really happy with at home. He’s by Belardo out of a Verglas mare, and we paid an awful lot for him, I think we paid £125,000 and he was only a £10,000 foal, but he’s an extremely good-looking horse.
His first few pieces of work earlier in the summer were like watching paint dry, but he’s really appeared on our radar in the last month or so, and I’d say he’s a different type of two-year-old to the majority of others we have in the yard, so I’m really excited to get him on the track.
Like all of our two-year-olds, he’ll probably be in need of the experience, but I’m sure the penny will drop with him, and he’ll run a really nice race. I think he’ll handle the cut in the ground, so my only worry would be whether greenness holds him back, but we’ll be there to give it our best shot.
SATURDAY RACING – LATEST BETTING HERE
Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador
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