Hugo Palmer is looking forward to being doubly-represented in Friday's Bahrain International Trophy.
The trainer runs Glacius and Seagulls Eleven in the $1.5 million contest over 10 furlongs and while having plenty of respect for the George Scott-trained Wimbledon Hawkeye, Palmer feels his duo are entitled to be thereabouts on their best form.
"I'm hugely looking forward to it," Palmer said on Monday's Nick Luck Daily Podcast. "It's always exciting to have a runner in a Group 1, I'm pretty sure this is the first time - since the inaugural Commonwealth Cup I think - I've had two runners in the same Group 1. And whenever we have runners in the Kingdom of Bahrain it's a great thrill. We've been involved with the Turf Series there pretty much since its inception, winning it a couple of times and lots of races out there, so to be able to come and have two runners in the inaugural Group 1 is wonderful."
Glacius already has a top-level triumph to his name having won the Saratoga Derby in August and has since finished second back in America in the Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes at Kentucky Downs.
"You don't know until you try these things but he was brilliant in Saratoga, for all that he will probably need to find a new level of form to win this race. Saratoga was nine and a half furlongs, the Nashville Derby was 10 and a half furlongs, and we just felt the extra furlong and the weight that he carried for winning his Grade 1 just cost him that day, he ran very, very well.
"So I do hope there's more to come, he worked at Wolverhampton a couple of weeks ago and his regular rider said to me 'you'll think I'm stupid but today is the first day he's felt like a good horse', and this is only a couple of weeks ago. So we feel he's improving and he has top go and prove it on the track.
"Seagulls Eleven is a slightly funny horse, I'm not sure he was quite right when he went to Goodwood and he ran like that. I did say to the owners his scope was clean, his blood was good, we're just not quite feeling it. But he's going to be a relatively short price, favourite or second-favourite, so there's no reason not to go but I'm just not totally happy, and they said right let's roll the dice. It didn't work but he came back to himself very well, he ran brilliantly in Paris.
"On the body of Seagulls Eleven's form he'd be a surprising winner of this race but there is scope to see some improvement in him as it's only his second run at the trip. We tried it for the first time and he was beaten two necks behind Wimbledon Hawkeye, who I assume will be favourite for this race. So we don't have a lot to find with the favourite and he's unexposed over 10 furlongs."
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