Adam Houghton profiles trainer Hugo Palmer, who is moving from his Newmarket base to Michael Owen's Manor House Stables in Cheshire.
Hugo Palmer, who grew up in the Scottish Borders and learnt to ride at a young age, has previously stated that his interest in racing was kickstarted by Lammtarra’s Derby win in 1995, and as a schoolboy he went to work for the Queen’s private trainer Lord Huntingdon at West Ilsley (now the base of Mick Channon).
Palmer moved on to Cheveley Park Stud and spent his holidays working alongside John Warren – during which time the leading bloodstock agent bought the Derby winner Motivator – and preparing yearlings (including the likes of Ask and Asset) for the sales for Highclere Stud.
Palmer later spent a total of five years in the role of an assistant trainer, first to Patrick Chamings and then to Hughie Morrison (during the time of star sprinters Baltic King, Intrepid Jack and Sakhee’s Secret), before taking up a job with leading Australian trainer Gai Waterhouse, for whom he was handed the responsibility of training a small string in Melbourne.
After taking the plunge to become a trainer in his own right in 2011, basing himself at Kremlin Cottage Stables in Newmarket, Palmer saddled his first winner when the two-year-old filly Steady The Buffs opened her account in a maiden at Brighton in May of that year. Palmer ended that first season with a total of seven winners in Britain, with Making Eyes and Quick Bite both registering two wins apiece.
Palmer couldn’t quite match that tally in 2012, ending the campaign with only six winners, though he did enjoy the biggest success of his career up to that point when Making Eyes won a Listed contest at Vichy.
From there things really started to take off and Palmer began to steadily increase his tally of winners in Britain every year, with 15 in 2013, 24 in 2014 and 34 in 2015 when he also broke through the £1-million barrier in total prize money for the first time in his career.
Palmer had a pair of two-year-olds who won in pattern company in 2014 – namely Aktabantay (Solario Stakes) and New Providence (Dick Poole Stakes) – but the real star of that crop was Covert Love, who made only one appearance at two, finishing fifth in a maiden at Lingfield, before blossoming into a very smart performer the following year.
Completing a meteoric rise through the ranks since the previous autumn, Covert Love provided Palmer with a first Group One success – and in a classic, too – when winning the Irish Oaks in 2015, and she went on to double her tally at the top level when also winning the Prix de l’Opera later that year.
Palmer could have been forgiven if he thought things couldn’t get any better, but he would have been wrong as 2016 proved to be another ground-breaking year. Not only did Palmer train 71 winners in Britain that season, but he also amassed more than £2 million in total prize-money.
The biggest contributor to that impressive haul was the high-class miler Galileo Gold, who provided Palmer with a second classic victory in the 2000 Guineas before also landing the St James’s Palace Stakes, becoming a first Royal Ascot winner of any description for his trainer in the process.
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Looking back, it seems strange now to think that Palmer would then have to wait another five years for another Group One winner to come along, such was the trajectory of his career at that point.
For a couple of years Palmer continued to surpass his best previous tally of winners in Britain, getting up to 77 in 2017 and 87 in 2018, but those heights have proved difficult to scale in more recent years. The yard sent out 53 winners in 2019 and 54 winners in both 2020 and 2021, failing to hit the £1-million marker in total prize-money each time.
Nevertheless, Palmer will move to Michael Owen’s Manor House Stables with plenty of other reasons to be optimistic about what 2022 might bring.
After all, the 2021 campaign did see him end his Group One drought when Ebro River – a member of Galileo Gold’s first crop, incidentally – won the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh, proving himself to be a smart two-year-old. Ebro River looks a sprinter through-and-through, so the Commonwealth Cup would appear to be his likeliest target in 2022.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsInstead, Dubawi Legend could be the horse to watch if Palmer has aspirations of adding to his classic wins with Covert Love and Galileo Gold come the spring.
Dubawi Legend may not have won a Group One last season like stablemate Ebro River did, but he still achieved a higher Timeform rating than that horse when filling the runner-up spot in the Dewhurst Stakes, passing the post only two lengths behind the unbeaten Native Trail.
Given that Native Trail is as short as 3/1 in the ante-post betting for the 2000 Guineas, Palmer is entitled to have lofty ambitions with Dubawi Legend in 2022 – perhaps the biggest year yet in a training career which has already taken on many twists and turns.