Newmarket’s Hugo Palmer has lifted himself into the top 10 in the Irish trainers’ championship with his second success of the weekend at The Curragh. One day after he landed the first Group One win of his career with Covert Love in the Irish Oaks, his Home Of The Brave came home three and a half lengths clear of his rivals in the Minstrel Stakes, a Group Three.
“I thought he’d win but I didn’t quite think he’d win like that,” said Palmer after watching his three-year-old make all to beat the favourite, Gordon Lord Byron. Home Of The Brave failed to make the frame in the 2,000 Guineas and the Commonwealth Cup but, dropped in class and returned to seven furlongs, appeared to take a significant step forward here under James Doyle.
“He’s a very immature horse and that’s why he was so lightly raced at two,” Palmer said. “He always showed he was a horse with amazing speed from Christmas as a yearling. He was terrifyingly quick.
“The Hungerford Stakes would look the obvious next target. There is the Prix Maurice de Gheest but that might be his Group One for next year. He’s a lightly framed horse and will be much stronger next year.”
