Stable favourite Gifted Master will be tasked with giving Hugo Palmer's stable a fast start at Royal Ascot.
The winner of 11 races, including the 2018 Stewards' Cup and the Group Three Pavilion Stakes at the track four years ago, is being aimed at the meeting’s new curtain-raiser, the Buckingham Palace Stakes, on Tuesday.
“He possibly has just lost a yard of pace now that he’s seven, but he’s a winner over five, six, seven and eight furlongs and the reinstatement of the seven-furlong handicap, the Buckingham Palace Stakes, is the perfect spot for him," Palmer said.
“Gifted Master has been an absolute star for us, he’s won £760,000 in prize money, Group races over six furlongs and a mile.
"He won the last two editions of the Tattersalls Millions Series, a Stewards’ Cup off top weight and we are now going to try to win at Royal Ascot with him.”
Acquitted, runner-up to John Gosden's excited Palace Pier at Newcastle on June 6, may join his stablemate on the lorry to Berkshire.
“We hope this horse is progressive, he’s done everything to suggest he is," Palmer added.
"The new race, the ten furlong three-year-old handicap (Golden Gates Handicap) is a possibility, depending on what the handicapper does.
"If the handicapper got carried away he could go for the Hampton Court Stakes, or we could stay at a mile for the Britannia.
“He wouldn’t want very fast ground, but the heatwave seems to have abated for now.
"Good ground would suit him.”
While she will not be seen on a racecourse any time soon,Palmer is pleased with the progress of stable star Powerful Breeze who is recovering from a gallops accident.
The daughter of Iffraaj was forced to miss the Qipco 1,000 Guineas after breaking her ribs in the spill.
“She is in really good form and she’s training on a treadmill at the moment," he said.
"The vets are very happy with the scans and the x-rays of how the bones have healed and knitted back together.”
Palmer hopes the 2019 Fillies' Mile runner-up may return in one of the Matron Stakes, the Sun Chariot or the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mares race later in the year.
