Our Friends in Newmarket - Hugo Palmer Stable Tour including Powerful Breeze

Our Friends in Newmarket - Hugo Palmer

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• Stable star: Powerful Breeze
• Horse to follow: Ironclad
• Handicapper to follow: Collide

Older horses

Almufti

He had a really good winter for us on the all-weather and I don't see why he wouldn't be effective on turf. He's had a wind operation and seemed to grow in confidence. He wouldn't want extremes of ground and would probably want a nice, level track as well, nothing too uphill or down dale.

Caravan Of Hope

Here's a horse I'm very sweet on. He was an immature horse last year, he ran seven times and was never out of the frame. He won his last two, at Ascot and then he bolted up over a mile and six on soft ground at Doncaster. Good ground or softer is important for him and I think he'll easily stay two miles. He's only rated in the 80s so he might be a horse for the Northumberland Vase or something. Any other of those staying races when conditions suit will be his bag as he's very likeable. He's been gelded but he was pretty genuine.

Collide

He's our most recent Stakes winner and he won a Listed race in France earlier this year. He got a lovely ride from Jason Watson that day. He could make up into an Ebor horse, he's rated 101 and may need to win again to get into that race. He had a breathing operation last year but it was great to get him back to win in the south of France and we always thought a mile and six might be in his compass. We know the full brother (Logician) stays a mile and six and providing we have the wind blowing in our favour I don't see any reason why he won't either.

El Ghazwani

He has got a lot of fans, certainly with us at home. He's five from six around 10 furlongs at Lingfield and he's rated 101 on the all-weather. There's no reason on pedigree why he shouldn't be able to compete on turf and he's only rated 90. He wouldn't want to be running on undulating tracks but a nice flat racing surface like York, neing held up behind a strong pace, could work for him. But if it doesn't work for him on turf then we won't overdo it. There are a lot of all-weather races through the winter that he can be kept relatively fresh for.

Gifted Master

He's a bit of a stable favourite, he's been in the yard for so many seasons now. He's won Group races over various trips and he's won a lot of prize money. He's always been quirky and taken quite a lot of handling and managing but he's a lovely horse. His rating is down a bit now but he's been regularly rated 115 and won the Stewards' Cup off top weight which takes some doing. The Victoria Cup was under some consideration as he's probably lost a yard of pace but I still think there are plenty of very decent races to be contested with him.

Ironclad

He's beautifully bred being by Dubawi out of Heat Haze and he's another who has been gelded which could be the making of him. We couldn't work out why he didn't win his last start and it turned out he picked up a small fracture which has healed well. His work as been as good as ever. He's another who wouldn't want to hear his hooves rattle in terms of underfoot conditions but I think he's well handicapped from a mark of 86. He indicates in his homework that he should rate a good deal higher in time.

Three-year-olds

Acquitted

He’s a Night Of Thunder colt and a lovely horse. He had three starts last year, winning two of them. He just found the very quick ground at Newbury catching him out. He’s done particularly well physically and we were thinking of the big 10 furlong handicap at Sandown or the London Gold Cup at Newbury. He’s that sort of horse and he might stay a mile and a half. He’s rated 89 and he’s a good bit better than that.

Arthur’s Court

He’s a Camelot half-brother to a Group Two winner in France. I think he’ll stay 10 furlongs. He’s been gelded and was actually a rig which I think was causing him discomfort, he seems happier now. He’s not the biggest but he does have a bit of scope and will be ready to run as soon as racing starts.

Chankaya

He just had the one start. He’s a Dubawi half-brother to Aktabantay who was my first Group Three winner. He’s really done very well from two to three. He finished down the field at Nottingham having made a rather ambitious mid-race move that day. He went into a few notebooks I think with the way he travelled but the ground caught him out. I think he’s a high-level handicapper at least.

Eastern Sheriff

He won well on debut and is a full brother to the St Leger winner Harbour Law. He’s turning into a lovely-looking horse and is working nicely. He’ll get better and better and should stay further too so we’ll see where we get to with him, I’d love to bring him along gradually to become a smart stayer. I hope that if he was to become something of an international stayer then he might remain in the same ownership which would be exciting.

Emissary

He’s done exceptionally well over the winter. He’s the Kingman half-brother to Workforce and he won his maiden very well at Wolverhampton at the back end of the season. He’s training nicely and we can dream he might be a Derby horse, if and when and where that happens. He did plenty wrong on debut and was very green but his best furlong was the furlong after the line. That run was at nine furlongs and it looks like he’ll stay and he was briefly in the Derby, before that cancelled all the entries a few weeks ago. Hopefully we’ll be able to run him in a trial or something along those lines.

Imrahor

He’s a colt by Kingman who has just had the one start, finishing second behind a horse of John Gosden’s at Newbury and didn’t run again. He did have a Guineas entry which is more at the owner’s insistence than mine but if he’s that good then there are plenty of good races to win. I think he should be winning his share of races this year.

Powerful Breeze

We’ve only got one confirmed Group One horse in the yard and that’s Powerful Breeze. She didn’t do very much wrong last year, just being beaten a head in the Fillies’ Mile and she was back in front a stride or two after the line. So it was particularly galling when she picked up an injury to her ribs. She’s recovering well from that but she has spent a considerable amount of time in her stable. Anyone who’s suffered a broken rib knows it’s a long and painful recovery process. That said, we haven’t had a Flat race run on turf in Britain yet this season and we know she will handle soft ground in the autumn, as well as fast ground in the summer. On the original programme I was hoping we might have her back for the Prix Rothschild but I’ve always thought we’d be working backwards from the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf which is being run at Keeneland this year which I’m think in right in saying is over a mile and a furlong, which would work very well for her. She has a lovely turn of foot and that tight, sharp nine furlongs would suit her. We hope she has trained on to continue to be a Group One filly and she’s definitely done well physically over the winter, she has matured. Races like the Sun Chariot and the Matron Stakes would be options in the run-up to America. Before that we could aim for a penalty-kick in a Listed race or something but we’ll see how the programme is shaping up.

Powertrain

He’s rated 86 and has been gelded, which looks to have improved him. He’ll be ready to go and might be a Britannia horse but he might not stay the mile. Six and seven furlongs may be more his thing but it’s difficult to plan with horses like him at the moment and I think he’s well handicapped. There should certainly be plenty of races for a horse of his profile anyway.

Zoran

He's a very well-bred horse and was second to Waldkonig – the Kingman half to the Arc winner Waldgeist – at Wolverhampton. We went there thinking it’d take a smart performance to beat him and it did take a very smart performance to beat him. Our horse has grown and really thickened out over the winter. If he was a filly I’d be saying he was potentially a black type horse but we did have in our minds a race like the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot. He’s got a lovely pedigree, he’s by Invincible Spirit out of a winning full sister to Australia.

Two-year-olds

We've got a nice bunch of two-year-olds, about 40 of them at the moment and I'm happy to highlight a handful of the ones who have already been named. The first three are all sharp, forward types and probably will be ready to run when racing gets going.

They are colts called Northbound, Echo Beach and Lockdown. They're all nice horses.

And then there's two that are catching my eye more for the back end of the season, one a son of Sea The Stars called Set Point and the other is a Dansili colt called Dantora.

Coming up this week... Our Friends in Newmarket

• George Boughey Stable Tour
• Tom Clover Stable Tour
• James Tate Stable Tour
• George Scott Stable Tour
• Charlie Fellowes Stable Tour
• Richard Spencer Stable Tour
• Ed Dunlop Stable Tour
• David Simcock Stable Tour