Trainer Hugo Palmer Riding High

Edinburgh-born Palmer’s deep Scottish Links.

“I was born in Edinburgh and my parents are all still up there.”

When asked where his passion for horses came from he explained “It's a very good question. I grew up with horses and I rode as a kid, I did Pony club. I was never particularly good at it, but it was an activity that we all did. My parents rode and if you said to my ten-year-old self that horses and training racehorses would be my career I would have laughed at you I suppose.

“At the age of 15 to 17 it was about then that I started to get interested in racing really from a betting point of view.

“It's quite fun as a 16-year-old kid always trying to nick off to the pub and trying to get a beer, trying to get served, and if you did manage to win a bet on the way it was always good to have a few more pounds in your pocket to spend.

“Very quickly it became a passion and by the age of 17, I was sure I wanted to train. I was clearly never going to be a jockey.

“I think my parents, proud as they are of the way things have gone, would have rather I’d gone and made the money to own horses rather than train them!” 

Palmer’s family have links to the industry and those connections have assisted him along the way in terms of the knowledge needed to succeed.

My Mother’s brother, Justin Wadham, was Darley’s company lawyer before becoming their Managing Director. His wife Lucy is a dual-purpose, but predominantly jumps, trainer in Newmarket.

“Certainly, when I was at school was just when my aunt was going from what we call in the UK, a permit holder to a licensed trainer. She was just training point-to-pointers and Hunter chasers, and she got her full licence when I was 17.

“She was unbelievably patient with me. I used to ring her twice a week to find out how the horses that my parents had a tiny share in were getting on.”

“So that was helpful when I wanted to get some experience and when I wanted to go and work with mares and foals in Newmarket when I left school for my year out.

“My uncle was able to make some phone calls on my behalf but I'm not steeped in family history but there is that connection.”

Eleven In A Stable

During Palmer’s first season training independently started with a small batch of only eleven stable members. 

“I had been working in Australia for Gai Waterhouse when my visa had expired and I left the county – I’m told most of I those still in Australia whose visas have expired, are Brits” he said grinning. 

“So, I came home for the summer and there was a loose plan that Gai would sponsor me, and I would go back and work for her for a longer period. But we hadn't put wheels in motion or anything like that. and I came back and The week I was back England, was England at its absolute best. 

“It was wall-to-wall sunshine, green, green grass, blue skies, warm early May just before the Guineas meeting at Newmarket and I went with a friend to the breeze up sale there. Low and behold, I managed to buy a horse which I wasn’t expecting to do but, buoyed by the confidence I had gained working for Gai Waterhouse, and the enthusiasm from the Australian Industry I felt I could give it a go.

“It didn't occur to me remotely that it was a foolhardy idea to buy a horse, and someone said to me  ‘I thought you wanted to train, so you better buy some horses’ - so I bought this filly and split her up where I took 10% of her and then split her up with nine other people and that was that.

“Everyone always says we started with 11 horses but the first morning I went to work as a trainer I only had three horses. We built from there that season to have those eleven horses. 

“If I knew how hard it was going to be or someone said to me you have to go back to the beginning and start again with 11 horses, I'd be like, oh God. But you know I had a small but good and enthusiastic team and all of us we worked really, really hard at it.

“There are so many cliches about luck. The harder you work the luckier you get and all of that. But there is an enormous amount of luck in horse racing.

Palmer’s Favourites 

“You know, I've lost count of the number of horses that I bought that I've absolutely loved. You have to love a horse to buy it, and think that’s the one, and if you're lucky some of them will be the one, and I was very lucky that that first horse was the one.” 

That horse was the filly Making Eyes, and the Dansil x Lady’s View progeny meant a lot to Palmer, delivering him several major highlights.

“She won several races and was a flag bearer for us. She won two Stakes races and having been a 25,000 guineas breeze up, we sold her for 165,000, having won 100,000 pounds in prize money.

“I know around the world that is not a vast amount of money but in these parts, and for a first horse, it was. She was a great success and to have that great success early on and with your first horse – people begin to notice you.

“If your first horse is incredibly moderate and you win a race no one really notices you and you might get a one-liner in the Racing Post saying you are a new trainer who got their first winner. But when that first winner goes on to win two Stakes races then you get noticed.

To make her achievements even more impressive the plan to race in France was never originally in focus for Making Eyes.

“Making Eyes winning in France was incredible. She was never supposed to run in France, and she was supposed to go to Pipalong Stakes at Pontrefact and it rained and rained.

“She was nearly at the racetrack by the time they called the meeting off. She was a four-year-old and that was the last opportunity for four-year-old and upwards in Europe. After that race, it all becomes 3YO and upwards.

“So I hunted around and there was this race that was closing in 10 minutes, to be run in seven days in Vichy, really quite a long way down in France from Pontefract! I was very fortunate that she travelled there so well and it shows how you have to have luck; without Pontefract abandoning, I wouldn’t have entered my first stakes race success.

“That was early on the highlight of the whole experience. Taking two horses on the road and from there everything happened quite quickly.”

Palmer’s CV of Success Glittered With Group Wins 

“Other highlights so far include Aktabantay winning our first Group race in 2014 was incredible. Another extraordinary thing was a filly named New Providence who won a Group Three for us two or three days later, giving us two Group wins in a week.

“I remember something David Loder said to me, in 2013 after I had been training for two years he said

‘How many Group races have you won?’. I had not, but we had won a couple of Listed races and the stable had begun to grow. He said ‘That’s pathetic! You should have won Group races. Next time you have a two-year-old that you like and it wins it a maiden, chuck it in a Group race and you’d be amazed how often they win’. 

“So we got to the next year, and we managed to win two in a week, so I thought that was very good advice and it has stood me in good stead ever since. People tend to only notice the winners and they don't notice the losers. So it doesn't matter if you lose and you’re going to win more times by taking part than you are if you don’t.”

“The following year Covert Love was a revelation, we'd always liked her, but she was weak as a two-year-old. It's funny because I think those on the outside of training and racing think that those of us on the inside have certainty of knowledge; that we know what's going to happen and we know what ability a horse is going to end up with.

“It's so far from the truth. You know we hope, we try, and we know what we're trying to achieve. But if we knew everything then the game would be so much easier. 

“I remember when Covert Love won her maiden, it all went wrong, and it wasn’t a very good race, but she won it quite well. William Buick rode her and when he got off her, he said that the filly was alright, but he thought she might get some black type races, but he doubted she would ever win one. She finished the year having won two Group Ones.

“Winning that Irish Oaks was a highlight and the following year with Gallileo Gold winning the 2000 Guineas and St. James's Palace were also highlights.

“But I think probably the greatest highlight so far was Covert Love winning the Prix Del’A Opera on Arc Day in Paris.

“She was ridden by the late Pat Smullen who became a good friend, and we had some great days together. He gave a lot of horses some magnificent rides, but he won't have given many better rides than the one he gave her that day.

“And she was an extraordinary story, she was bred by some friends of mine who she was RNA’d in the ring at Goffs as a yearling. I liked her a lot, but I didn’t have an order and I begged and said look let me take her home and we can work something out.

“We got her syndicated and she was only 3,000 pounds a share and when she was favourite that day or joint-favourite in Paris she was owned by people who lived all over the world and people had flown in from Hong Kong, South Africa and Ireland. The whole team was there to see her win in a pulsating finish of heads and was just not getting denied.

“I think, to be surrounded by friends, co-owners and the whole team with everything on that day in Paris - I think that probably is the highlight.

“The great moments since then obviously are around Galileo Gold and particularly in 2021 when Galileo Gold had Ebro River, who was his son. That is a great source of pride I suppose that we had Galileo Gold’s first winner, his first Stakes winner and his first Group One winner all from the same horse, and but that was fun.”

Palmer took over training at Manor House Stables, an amazing facility, last year. Michael Owen, converted the establishment from a cattle farm in 2007.

Michael had parted company with his former trainer and was looking for a replacement. Michael and I had been friends for several years, and whilst I had reservations to start with, he persuaded me to at least take a look. I fell in love with Manor House; it is a magnificent place to train racehorses and I am very excited about the future, and we have great plans to develop the yard further.

Palmer’s Hope For 2023 Middle East WIns

For the current UAE Middle-Eastern season, he is preparing the 4YO Flaming Rib which has progressed since Palmer took over Manor house Stables.

“As a horse, I am pretty sure he is the best of Ribchester’s progeny. I didn’t know him as a two-year-old, but he was a successful two-year-old for Tom Dascombe having won a Listed race on very soft ground.

“When I arrived at Manor House Michael said to me that he hoped that he might be a Guineas horse and said, ‘look he probably wants a bit of soft ground should we maybe think about the French Guineas and maybe the Greenham and see if he can stay’. So we went to the Greenham and after months and weeks of training him to settle and stay, he raced and was too keen. So he dropped back to five at Chester and won and he was then second in the Sandy Lane and second in the Commonwealth Cup and was right up there with the top two or three three-year-old sprinters last year.

“He was very immature looking but now as a four-year-old, he has become a man. He looks like a genuine sprinter and has developed and grown into himself. His work this winter has been really exciting.

“The ultimate target really for him is the Al Quorz Sprint on World Cup night. It comes down to how we get there now. 

“The sprint in Saudi is very appealing and he has also been entered into that. I think that purely from a financial point of view, it's worth $1.5 million, same as the Al Quoz Sprint.

“If he weren’t to get into the Saudi race, he could head to Qatar for the Dukkhan Sprint and then to Dubai.

“It’s staggering the money that’s available to these horses in the Middle East – but that is why everybody wants to race there.”

Flaming Rib is yet to depart the UK as Palmer states it’s a case of fly-in for the races and be fresh for each particular booking for him.

“You can't dance every dance. He'll travel out for the races that I mentioned but the Doha, Saudi and World Cup races are all invitationals, and he would only be out of the country for eight or nine days on each occasion.

“I think we do that and then see how he goes and see what other options there are. Obviously, there are great options in the UK and with a lot of last years sprinter’s such as Naval Crown, Minzaal, Perfect Power, Double or Bubble and Alcohol-Free, I know she is not retired but she's in Australia and I have no idea whether she'll be coming back to England to race again but you know, a lot of the leading sprinters, and our own Dubawi Legend unfortunately, have been retired. 

“So hopefully there are opportunities for him in the UK. There's an awful lot of money around the world depending on how his winter and early spring campaign goes, we will see where he goes after this campaign.”

“Our other leading sprinter Brad the Brief really wants to get his toe into the ground a little bit and so I just thought I know the ground is meant to be beautiful in Saudi but I kind of thought just preparing a soft ground horse for the Middle East wasn't the most sensible thing to do.”

The stable at Manor House currently has 120 members in the yard.

“That’s when they all come in and is about a dozen or so less than last year.

“We have got some lovely looking two-year-olds, and plenty of them look like early two year olds, but it is very early days.

“But obviously it’s very early days. It's very much you know back to the beginning in many ways but it’s great to have Flaming Rib and Brad the Brief as well.

“I think we’ve got some very nice three-year-olds coming through. There are two colts both by Lope de Vega who both finished third on debut, Order of Malta and Imperial Ace, I think they’ll turn into really nice middle-distance horses in the spring.

“We have also got a very smart filly called Stenton Glider who won her only start at Chester, she beat a five to-one shot of Juddmonte’s who had been about a length and a half behind Commissioning, either the Guineas favourite or second favourite and we beat it on debut fairly convincingly.

“It was frustrating as she got struck into not long after that and so we weren't able to run her again. So she's just had the one start but she's going to have a 1000 Guineas Prep and we'll see where we get to with her. I think she's pretty exciting.”

Choosing From The Best

For Palmer and Manor House Stables when it comes to selecting horses to be a part of the team it comes down to the way a horse behaves rather than particular physical attributes.

“If I have seen something at home and really been impressed by something and thought this is actually quite good. I don't think you have to prove that it's that good before actually having a go at the highest level.

“I’ve always wanted to have a balanced stable. I’ve always wanted to have sprinters, milers and stayers. I don't particularly have a type, but I like horses to have a nice outlook, I like them to have a nice, eye. I like them to look like the sort of animal that wants to be on your side.

“We've got ambitions to train more, and we want things to go well with the dream ambition to build a powerhouse stable where we are in Cheshire.

“120 horses to go to war with in 2023 – I think that is a great place to start.”