Hugo Palmer Saturday runners blog: 'For once my Chester runners are all drawn well'

Ahead of a big week of horse racing next week, Hugo Palmer shares his latest Saturday blog with Coral's readers, previewing his runners at Sandown, Chester and York.

Asteverdi has been entered and entered and entered, as we've been desperately trying to find some give in the ground for her, so hopefully the forecast thunderstorms will materialise and provide suitable ground. It will be her first run for us, we’ve learned as much as we can at home, and so I’m keen to run her.

She’s drawn well, and we have Oisin Murphy booked, but she has proved that she needs slower ground to be seen to best effect, so hopefully the rain will come.

For once all our runners at Chester have been drawn well, and Balon d’Or has stall three here. He had the option of a six furlongs race here as well, and while I think he’s effective over both trips, we’ve opted for the more valuable race over the shorter distance he’s won at around here before.

He’s versatile in terms of ground, so any rain shouldn’t be an issue, and while he likes Chester, he doesn’t like to make the running, instead he likes a target to aim at, and put his head in front on the line. We hope he can run a big race. 

Any rain will definitely be Grey Cuban’s friend, he just found the ground a little bit too quick here last time, and before that, I’m not sure he quite got home at Kempton, and first run of the season he probably got a little bit tired too. The good news is, with those runs, the handicapper has just dropped him a notch each time. 

That means he’s now on a mark he can win off, and he seems in really good form at home, I’m very happy with him. He’ll probably be a bit of a handful at the races, as he is when he’s in good form, but that will be a good sign. He’s another I hope can go well.

There’s decent prize money here, but only nine have been entered, and while there is the Britannia at Royal Ascot next week over this trip, neither of ours would get into that. Both are off nice low weights, I think both are well handicapped, and I think both will handle any cut in the ground.

I think this is Miami Matrix’s perfect trip, while Triple Double A will step up in distance after this, but both are in good form and at the risk of repeating myself, I hope both will run well. 

How Impressive seems in good form and on really good terms with himself. He is one of those horses who does things his own way, we just have to keep running him and when he’s in the right mood, everything clicks. Whether this will happen here – and it is a typically competitive York handicap - we’ll let him decide!

View the latest horse racing odds

All odds and markets correct as of date of publication.