Hugo Palmer Royal Ascot Day Two blog: 'She looks very well handicapped'

Hugo Palmer is back with an exclusive Coral blog, with the leading trainer running us through his runners on Day Two of Royal Ascot this year and at Hamilton.

Victoria Falls is a filly I really like, and I must say she’s an absolute pleasure to train. It’s amazing that she’s got in actually, but she has, and she goes there with some sort of a chance. The handicapper has put her up 3lb to 78 this morning, and she’s going to be running off 76 tomorrow, and when you also take into account Connor Planas’ claim, she suddenly looks a very well handicapped filly.

This is obviously a big step up in grade for her, but she’s very versatile with regards to ground, she tries extremely hard, and she always runs her race. Whether that will be good enough to pick up a share of the prize money, I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, but I’m really happy with her going into it, and it wouldn’t be a big shock to me if she showed up well.

I’m a little bit worried that the ground will be on the quick side for Arabian Cobra, but I do think coming back in trip will suit him. He looks very well at home, and his work has been good, so although he’ll go into this a massive price, I don’t think there’s any reason why he shouldn’t take his chance.

Maidens don’t traditionally win the Windsor Castle, so of course it’s going to be very difficult for him, but whatever happens at Ascot tomorrow, I’m sure he’ll be winning races before too long.

Herecomesthebear ran quite well from a wide draw at Chester on his racecourse debut, and I expect him to step forward for that effort. We’ve given him a bit of time to since that run, and I think he’s probably improved for that.

The step up in trip to 6f will be in his favour, and the ground looks like it will be similar to what he encountered at Chester, so hopefully he can put up a very bold showing

Rose Branch is a nice filly who’s joined us from George Boughey’s yard, and it will be her first start for us at Hamilton tomorrow, so I’m sure we’ll learn plenty about her. She made an ok start on her debut at Nottingham back in August, but she seemingly just didn’t quite go on from that, so hopefully she’ll take a step forward for us.

It’s not the strongest race in the world, and I think the bit of cut in the ground up at Hamilton will suit her, so I’d be hopeful she’s capable of getting involved.

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