Palmer To Cap Big Year At Breeders' Cup

European visitors to the Breeders' Cup have never found the land of the free quite so divided. But both sides of this bitter race for the White House would doubtless be united in bemusement that Britain's only runner in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint–sired by an Australian migrant, foaled in Ireland, raised in France–should bear the name Home Of The Brave (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}). In his trainer, however, they would recognise the kind of talent and ambition bound to thrive in any land of opportunity.

Success here would seal another season of dizzy progress in the career of Hugo Palmer, who back in the spring saddled Galileo Gold (GB) (Paco Boy {Ire}) to win the G1 2000 Guineas. In between, his sixth season with a licence has doubled the domestic gains he had made in his fifth–67 winners to date, up from 34; and prizemoney topping £2-million, up from £1.05- million, elevating him from number 22 to number nine in the trainers' championship. That rate of progress surpasses even the expansion of the 35-year-old's Newmarket stable, spurred by last year's breakthrough with dual Group 1 winner Covert Love (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}), from 75 horses to 130.

After putting the finishing touches to Home Of The Brave's preparation on Friday morning, Palmer looked forward to a new phase of consolidation. “We live in an industry where the margins between success and failure are very narrow,” he said. “And people make opinions very quickly. So I felt it was very important, as a stable, that we continued the progress. Everyone around me kept their heads down, kept working hard, and thankfully it happened. Plenty of times you can do everything right, can work hard, and find that things still don't go right. So it's been thrilling. But the dream is that we can push on again. And, on pedigree and type, the yearlings look like another step forward: there are some wonderful stallions there, and some wonderful individuals.”

Nothing condenses the sense of momentum better than the fact that Al Shaqab have sent him the first foal delivered by Making Eyes (Ire) (Dansili {GB})–Palmer's very first horse, and ultimately a dual listed winner. Her colt by Invincible Spirit (Ire) fetched 360,000gns at Tattersalls Book 1.

Home Of The Brave clearly faces a challenge, hurtling downhill around the 6.5-furlong dog-leg, but stretching him into a vintage Mile would doubtless have been tougher still. Though considered something of a seven-furlong specialist, he has tended to show plenty of energy in his races. “We felt that if we had gone a mile, going round a bend would have helped him to settle,” Palmer said. “Though he's led in the majority of his races, I'd be quite surprised if he were able to do that here. But I've talked about it at length with James [Doyle, jockey] and hope that we can just get him to travel in his own space.”

Palmer is delighted by the way the 4-year-old has absorbed his long journey and adapted to the novel environment. Home Of The Brave arrives fresh off a lay-off since only the fourth start of his campaign in August. “He's grown up an enormous amount,” Palmer said. “These trips can be like a 'gap year' for horses. They can really find themselves and learn and become a bit more worldly. He's not a big, heavy, robust horse and has always gone best with a bit of time between races. If you look at his form, the times he's disappointed have tended to be when we've backed him up a little bit soon. But we were able to give him a proper break after the Hungerford and then bring him back in the beginning of September for a nice, nine-week preparation.”

Galileo Gold is built on very different lines and that is one of many reasons why Palmer is so pleased to be retaining the services of the brawny chestnut next year. Another is the chance to get the colt back on an even keel after he took such a keen hold when disappointing in his last two starts, the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S.

“With the benefit of hindsight, I think running him back so quickly in France, after the Sussex, was an error,” Palmer admitted. “It probably lit him up. He then had a bit of a break, but maybe not enough of one to settle him down again. Then, when he went back into work, he bruised a foot and had a few more days off than I'd have wanted. So while I was happy to get him to Ascot fit, and looking in great shape, it wasn't an entirely ideal preparation. Perhaps we'd had to push him a tiny bit hard– and it's not easy to push them and teach them to relax at the same time. So I hope he can come back the way he was earlier in the season, even in the Sussex, when he was very relaxed and Frankie [Dettori] was able to make his own running at a quiet, sedate pace, and it so nearly paid off.”

The G1 Lockinge S. is the obvious first target, leading into the G1 Queen Anne S., albeit Palmer has not wholly ruled out an experiment over a ninth furlong in Dubai should Galileo Gold happen to come to hand quickly. One way or another, there are grounds for hoping that even the most accomplished horse in his care–a first British Classic winner, and first Royal Ascot winner–has the potential to piece together something even better at four. “They often say the Guineas is the last 2-year-old race, and some Guineas horses don't improve or change,” Palmer said. “But this is a big horse, filling out all the time, and I'd be very hopeful that his best days remain ahead.”

That choice of words had a particular resonance, granted that Best Of Days (GB) (Azamour {Ire}) seems so eligible to follow Galileo Gold onto the Classic carousel. If anything, this colt won his debut too easily and was just too raw to follow up in the G3 Acomb S., but he then profited from an extra furlong to win the G2 Royal Lodge S. “I think we all felt he was a little unlucky to get caught on the line at York, having been so green and babyish,” Palmer said. “Going on to Newmarket, it was very firm and we felt it was vital to make his move on the rising ground, about three-and-a-half out, because he was never going to quicken up going downhill. James executed it beautifully, and the horse stuck his neck out bravely coming uphill again to the line.

As such, while Best Of Days will probably retain the Guineas option, Palmer suspects that he will sooner start in a Derby trial. But he hopes that Escobar (Ire) (Famous Name {GB}) could yet make a Guineas colt, having produced a dirty scope when such a disappointing favourite for the G3 Somerville Tattersall S. on his third start. “He's always been much more of a speed horse,” Palmer said, comparing him with Best Of Days. “Obviously the hope was that he could win that day and so go to the Guineas in the same way as Galileo Gold, off a racecourse gallop. But until he has trialled well, he doesn't really belong in the Guineas. So I would think he'll go to the Greenham first.”

Once again, then, the stable will begin a new season with much to anticipate. But the present campaign may yet have a glorious finale. “The problems of prizemoney in Britain are being permanently highlighted, so it's great to have owners sporting and supportive enough to travel the world for the opportunity to win a massive pot,” Palmer said. “There isn't a race suitable for Home Of The Brave worth $1-million in England, that's for sure. It would book-end a fantastic year. But when you look at everything Aidan O'Brien has achieved, it puts anything the rest of us have done rather firmly in the shade. He sets extraordinarily high standards for everyone else. So while we can be pleased that we're in the top 10, we're a hell of a long way from the top. And that's really where I dream of being one day.”