Hugo Palmer blog: 'He can run a race full of promise'

Hugo Palmer is back with an exclusive blog, with the top trainer and Coral ambassador running us through his runners on Saturday at Chester.

Due To Dance makes his racecourse debut in the opening race on the card, and he’s a nice colt who I’m looking forward to getting started with. Like many of our two-year-olds, he might just need the experience, but I’m sure he’ll learn a lot this weekend, and I’d say he’ll improve on whatever he achieves here.

It’s a small field, and there’s nice prize money on offer, so hopefully he can settle into the race nicely, and he has a good draw in stall 3, so I’m hopeful that he can run a race full of promise.

Sadly, Rajinsky will be a non-runner at Chester this weekend. We were hoping to get him back on the racecourse sooner rather than later, but there just hasn’t been enough rain at Chester for him, so we’ll wait until we can find some cut in the ground.

Balon d’Or has been done no favours by the draw in stall 7, so that’s frustrating, but hopefully he can get a bit of luck and overcome it. Even though he hasn’t been running too badly, he’s just been making hard work of it of late, and we thought he probably should of won at Carlisle last time, but he just didn’t for whatever reason, so we are trying the blinkers here in the hope they will sharpen him up.

He has run well at Chester on a few occasions, so we know he handles the track, and he’s come down another pound in the weights, so if the blinkers have the desired effect, then he could go close here.

It Ain’t Two does have a bit to find at the weights here, but it’s a valuable race worth having a crack at. It’s a competitive race with a few unexposed types in there, but she’s done very little wrong of late, so I think she’s entitled to take her chance. 

This will be her first run at Chester, so hopefully she handles it, but she has a nice draw in stall 3, so if she gets away well, then hopefully she’s capable of getting involved.

Roman Dragon needs to bounce back to some form here, but as a result of not really getting competitive in some hot races of late, he has at least come back down in the weights.

He won here off 87 last year, and he runs off 89 this weekend, so we know he can be competitive off this sort of mark, but the draw is a big problem. He’s ended up in stall 11, and you’d have to say unless they go far too fast up front, he just can’t win from that draw.

Flaming Rib has done slightly better than Roman Dragon with regards to the draw, but still not ideal in stall 7. He did have a pig of a draw here last time though, so I can’t complain too much about it. He’ll relish the quick ground at Chester this weekend, and he has plenty of form at the track, so I think he can go close if he gets out well and gets into a nice position.

This horse was rated 112 last year, and things just haven’t gone to plan with him, but he now runs here off 97, so he’s very attractively handicapped. He seems in good form, and this is the lowest grade he’s been in for some time, so I think he’s capable of running really well here.

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