Hugo Palmer\u2019s adventurous overseas campaign with Flaming Rib takes the Manor House Stables trainer to a new horizon when he saddles the four-year-old for the HK$20 million Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize, one of the highlights on Champions\u2019 Day at Sha Tin on Sunday April 30th.<\/p>
It will be Palmer\u2019s first visit to Hong Kong and a fleeting one, as he expects to arrive two days ahead of the prestigious Champions meeting, and depart for England straight after the race.<\/p>
Palmer is the eldest son of the 4th Baron Palmer, whose ancestral seat, Manderston, is in Berwickshire. At the turn of the 20th century the family owned the Reading-based biscuit manufacturers Huntley & Palmers.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”19418″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
He looks back at his most rewarding experience before attaining a trainers\u2019 licence in 2011 as the 15 months he spent with Gai Waterhouse in Australia. And once up and running back in England, he wasted little time in putting a domestic Classic on the sideboard, attained when Galileo Gold landed the 2,000 Guineas in 2016.<\/p>
By invitation he relocated to Owen\u2019s Manor House in Cheshire in March last year, taking with him a number of the team he\u2019d trained in Newmarket.<\/p>
Flaming Rib missed out on journeying overseas during the 2022 UK season, but has already raced in Qatar and Dubai this year, winning on a turning track at Doha but encountering false ground when unplaced in the Group 1 Al Quoz\u00a0 Sprint over six furlongs at Meydan, won by Danyah.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Flaming Rib finishes eleventh in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint in Meydan this year.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Palmer explained: \u201cDubai was a bit of a disappointment. He was 14-1 but as soon as the draw came out he halved in price. Normally from a high draw you have an advantage as they come to the stands side where it is virgin ground and much quicker.<\/p>
\u201cBut on the night the race developed on the far side, and the fact that Oisin Murphy came back with mud all over his face tells its own story. In short, he was drawn on the favoured side, but it turned out that wasn\u2019t the best part of the track to be on.\u201d<\/p>
Of Flaming Rib\u2019s earlier triumph the trainer added: \u201cDoha was very quick. He loves that while I also feel some of his better performances have been when he encounters a bend like he did in Qatar. So the hope is that on faster ground at Sha Tin he can run more like he did at Doha.\u201d<\/p>
Flaming Rib enjoyed a bountiful campaign in his own backyard last year when he finished second in the Commonwealth Cup (Group 1) and wasn\u2019t beaten far in the July Cup (Group 1) at Newmarket when poorly drawn.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Flaming Rib finishes second behind Perfect Power in the G1 Commonwealth Cup in Royal Ascot.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Palmer recalls: \u201cHe was drawn out on the wing in the July Cup with the race developing ten horse widths to our left, but he wasn\u2019t disgraced. He then came back and finished a good fourth in the Haydock Sprint Cup (Group 1) but disappointed on testing ground at Ascot. We considered going to the Keeneland Breeders\u2019 Cup but decided to pull the plug on season.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m mindful that it\u2019s going to be tough against local champion Lucky Sweynesse and Wellington is a nice horse, but Flaming Rib is good going round a bend and we need to keep our fingers crossed for a favourable draw.\u201d<\/p>
Flaming Rib is part-owned by former England international forward Michael Owen and Tom Marquand is booked to partner him at Sha Tin.<\/p>
Unfortunately Owen is unable to join Palmer on the flight, the latter observing: \u201cMichael really wanted to go to Hong Kong but is extremely busy with television commitments. It would have been good if he could.\u201d<\/p>
Palmer continues: \u201cThe horse travelled well to Dubai and Qatar, and while he\u2019s got further to go this time he\u2019s getting used to it.<\/p>
\u201cThe Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize comes at the start of our season which would be a big ask for a horse having his first run, but we\u2019ve had two races and are in a good place in that respect. Hughie Bowman was going to ride him only for John Size to pull rank and claim him, so we have Tom Marquand, whose agent was on the phone minutes after Hughie said he wasn\u2019t available.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”19417″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Hugo Palmer\u2019s adventurous overseas campaign with Flaming Rib takes the Manor House Stables trainer to a new horizon when he saddles the four-year-old for the HK$20 million Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize, one of the highlights on Champions\u2019 Day at Sha Tin on Sunday April 30th.It will be Palmer\u2019s first visit to Hong… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":19422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19402"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19402"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19424,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19402\/revisions\/19424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}