Seagulls Eleven will bid to continue his excellent season in the Ascot Shop Summer Mile on Saturday.
Hugo Palmer’s four-year-old – who is owned by a collection of footballers including the recently-retired James Milner – made a promising start to his campaign when narrowly denied in a Group Two at Saint-Cloud and he went one better on his return to France three weeks later in Listed company at ParisLongchamp.
Having followed up that victory with a narrow Group Three win on home soil in Epsom’s Diomed Stakes, Palmer is looking forward to once again raising his sights for what looks a strong renewal of this weekend’s Group Two event in Berkshire.
“He’s all set but it looks a deep race at the entry stage. The round mile will suit, that’s why he’s heading there,” the trainer told Sky Sports Racing.
“He didn’t actually have a Royal Ascot entry, although when I saw Ten Bob Tony win the Queen Anne I briefly kicked myself, but I’d made quite a big thing to the owners that single figure fields and a turning track suit him.
“He’s mature now, although interestingly when Christophe Soumillon won on him at Longchamp he told me he thought he still wasn’t quite the finished article. He’s a very big horse and he thought he’d be better as a five-year-old.”
A positive performance from Seagulls Eleven at Ascot could see him step up to Group One level for the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, a track where he won the Group Three Thoroughbred Stakes last summer.
Palmer added: “We’ll take it one race at a time with him, both Christophe and Oisin (Murphy) think he’ll get further. He’s in the Sussex Stakes and if he runs really well at Ascot this weekend he’d probably run there.
“It will be a tough race with Bow Echo and Gstaad but he loves the track and it will be a small field.”