Hugo Palmer Blog | Chester May Meeting Day Two
07 May 2025
Coral Racing Ambassador, Hugo Palmer, previews his eleven runners on the second day of Chester's May Meeting, including Roaring Legend in the Group 3 Ormonde Stakes.
13:30 Chester – Balon d’Or & Roman Dragon
Day two of the May Festival is a particularly busy one, with eleven runners in action for us. We start with two in the opening five furlongs handicap, and it’s a tale of two draws. Balon d’Or has the widest stall of all in 12, so probably needs a miracle! He is in good order, he will come on for his reappearance at Musselburgh, and he does run well at Chester. He also doesn’t like to lead, so being off the pace might help him overcome the draw to a degree.
Roman Dragon is having his fifth run of the year, but his first in the UK, as he ran four times in Bahrain over the winter. He’s come back from there with a handicap mark of 95, which won’t make life easy for him, although he was only beaten a length [into fourth] in this race off the same mark last year. He’s drawn OK in five, but he’s never won off this mark, although he did pick up decent prize money on his travels, so we can’t have it both ways.
14:05 Chester – Dubai Time & Tricky Tel
We also run two in the maiden. They would be hard to split on their homework, I really don’t think there’s much between them, and in terms of jockey bookings, Oisin Murphy would be slight first choice, and rides Tricky Tel purely because he’s drawn lower in stall two, albeit Dubai Time and David Probert are next to them in three.
Both have been away for racecourse gallops, both go nicely at home, and we’ve been looking forward to running them, so while it’s not easy to win here on debut, fingers-crossed they can both run nice races.
15:05 Chester – Roaring Legend
We need to atone for his performance at Newcastle on All-weather finals day, but he was ten kilos heavier that day than when he had won on his previous start, and that probably caught him out over two miles. He probably just had too long off between races, and he was just a bit short of work.
This will be his first start for us on grass, he has won on it before, and I think he’ll enjoy the quicker ground. We’re trying to see if he’s a Melbourne Cup horse, so I hope there is more to come from him, at least we didn’t run our race at all at Newcastle, rather than giving our running and finishing second by a length.
We need to finish in the first three in a Group race over a mile and half or further, and I hope he can do that here, with several of his rivals wanting more ease in the ground perhaps.
15:40 Chester – Sweet Fantastic, Soldiers Star & Miami Matrix
We run three in the seven furlongs handicap, a race that surprisingly hasn’t filled. All three have good chances, Miami Matrix and Sweet Fantastic are drawn well, and even Soldiers Star isn’t drawn too badly in nine, as it’s not a full field. All three carry nice low weights, I can’t spilt them and hope all three can be competitive off of their marks.
16:10 Chester – Box To Box
Box To Box didn’t enjoy the same success as Roman Dragon in Bahrain, but I thought he would have an excellent chance here this week. His draw of 13 of 14 isn’t ideal, but over this trip it’s less of a problem than it is over shorter distances. He’s come back from his travels in good order, his rating has dropped in Bahrain, to a mark where I think he should be very competitive here.
16:45 Chester – My Kinda Ghaiy & Patagonia Girl
We end the day with another pair of runners. My Kinda Ghaiy has had his three runs to get his handicap mark, and he’s been gelded. I think he will stay this trip well, albeit there has to be a question mark about him going an extra half mile at this early stage of his career.
Patagonia Girl is by a Derby winner out of a mare by another Derby winner, so she should stay I hope. I’ve been very happy with her work this spring, and I hope she could be well handicapped.
Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador
13:30 Chester – Balon d’Or & Roman Dragon
Day two of the May Festival is a particularly busy one, with eleven runners in action for us. We start with two in the opening five furlongs handicap, and it’s a tale of two draws. Balon d’Or has the widest stall of all in 12, so probably needs a miracle! He is in good order, he will come on for his reappearance at Musselburgh, and he does run well at Chester. He also doesn’t like to lead, so being off the pace might help him overcome the draw to a degree.
Roman Dragon is having his fifth run of the year, but his first in the UK, as he ran four times in Bahrain over the winter. He’s come back from there with a handicap mark of 95, which won’t make life easy for him, although he was only beaten a length [into fourth] in this race off the same mark last year. He’s drawn OK in five, but he’s never won off this mark, although he did pick up decent prize money on his travels, so we can’t have it both ways.
14:05 Chester – Dubai Time & Tricky Tel
We also run two in the maiden. They would be hard to split on their homework, I really don’t think there’s much between them, and in terms of jockey bookings, Oisin Murphy would be slight first choice, and rides Tricky Tel purely because he’s drawn lower in stall two, albeit Dubai Time and David Probert are next to them in three.
Both have been away for racecourse gallops, both go nicely at home, and we’ve been looking forward to running them, so while it’s not easy to win here on debut, fingers-crossed they can both run nice races.
15:05 Chester – Roaring Legend
We need to atone for his performance at Newcastle on All-weather finals day, but he was ten kilos heavier that day than when he had won on his previous start, and that probably caught him out over two miles. He probably just had too long off between races, and he was just a bit short of work.
This will be his first start for us on grass, he has won on it before, and I think he’ll enjoy the quicker ground. We’re trying to see if he’s a Melbourne Cup horse, so I hope there is more to come from him, at least we didn’t run our race at all at Newcastle, rather than giving our running and finishing second by a length.
We need to finish in the first three in a Group race over a mile and half or further, and I hope he can do that here, with several of his rivals wanting more ease in the ground perhaps.
15:40 Chester – Sweet Fantastic, Soldiers Star & Miami Matrix
We run three in the seven furlongs handicap, a race that surprisingly hasn’t filled. All three have good chances, Miami Matrix and Sweet Fantastic are drawn well, and even Soldiers Star isn’t drawn too badly in nine, as it’s not a full field. All three carry nice low weights, I can’t spilt them and hope all three can be competitive off of their marks.
16:10 Chester – Box To Box
Box To Box didn’t enjoy the same success as Roman Dragon in Bahrain, but I thought he would have an excellent chance here this week. His draw of 13 of 14 isn’t ideal, but over this trip it’s less of a problem than it is over shorter distances. He’s come back from his travels in good order, his rating has dropped in Bahrain, to a mark where I think he should be very competitive here.
16:45 Chester – My Kinda Ghaiy & Patagonia Girl
We end the day with another pair of runners. My Kinda Ghaiy has had his three runs to get his handicap mark, and he’s been gelded. I think he will stay this trip well, albeit there has to be a question mark about him going an extra half mile at this early stage of his career.
Patagonia Girl is by a Derby winner out of a mare by another Derby winner, so she should stay I hope. I’ve been very happy with her work this spring, and I hope she could be well handicapped.
Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador
Share
