The step up to 7 furlongs should be no issue for James Street when he lines up in the Tattersalls Acomb Stakes on Wednesday, says his trainer Hugo Palmer. The son of Gale Force Ten comes into the race having recorded back-to-back victories after being beaten only a neck on debut. All three of those runs to date were over 6 furlongs, but Palmer says that experience could prove crucial. “James Street obviously needs to improve and he has raced exclusively over 6 furlongs so far. I think he’ll be versatile on the ground and will improve for stepping up to 7 furlongs,” said Palmer. “I imagine that he will be one of the more experienced runners in the Acomb because the conditions for the race are that the horses have to have not won before the 12th July. He won on the 18th and has won again since, so he will be one of the more experienced horses in the race. “His work has been very pleasing since, we think he’ll improve for stepping up to 7 furlongs. We put him in the Dewhurst because if it is to go right at York and he is to win the Acomb, then you are going to want that entry aren’t you?” Victory in the race would represent a third high-profile victory in August for Palmer following the Saturday successes of Gifted Master and Unforgetable Filly and the former could be back in action this weekend following his Unibet Stewards’ Cup exploits. “He’s bounced out of it really, you wouldn’t know he’d had a run,” said Palmer. “He was pretty fresh going into it having not run since a quiet time in the King’s Stand at Royal Ascot. He came out the [Goodwood] run really well and it was very exciting. “He’s probably going to have to be disappointing a few times for him to run in many more handicaps in his career but it’s quite nice for him to be unbeaten in handicaps. “I think the most obvious race for him is to go back to Listed level, it’s sort of irony of the British racing programme that he’s now too good to run in a £250,000 race again, so he has to run in a £50,000 race or a £40,000 race.” “He will probably go back to the Listed Hopeful Stakes that he won last year. After this rain that we are having at the moment is through, we’ll return to fairly settled, dry weather and it will be nice for him at Newmarket’s July course on Saturday.” Whilst Gifted Master left it late to win his race, Unforgetable Filly could not have been any more impressive when bolting clear of her field to win the Listed Dick Hern Stakes at Haydock by eight lengths. Both are owned by Dr Ali Ridha and Palmer revealed it was the owner’s decision to keep the horse in training following some below par efforts last year. “It was a good eight days for Dr Ali Ridha and full credit to him because I had given him the opportunity to retire the horse two or three times, and said ‘are you sure you want to keep going, Sir, she’s not really doing much for us’?. “It was very sporting of him to keep trying, and I suppose the nice thing about training good fillies is that all their successes boost their profile and their failures don’t diminish it. Whereas, if you get stallion prospects beaten half a dozen times, the gloss comes off them very much. With a good filly, it doesn’t matter as long as they’ve won their Group races. Nobody judges them, and that’s exactly the same as her.” Listed success was the reward for the patience shown and she will now be pitched back in to Group company at Sandown on September 1st, providing conditions are suitable. “She won the German Guineas the Sunday before Royal Ascot last year, so for the first time in 13-and-a-half months she has actually produced a Group class performance, which was obviously lovely. She’ll head back in the direction of the Group races next, The Atalanta Stakes at Sandown looks an obvious target for her but she’s very much a fast ground filly.” Video courtesy of JSC Communications --- Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/2l9x35T Website: http://www.racingpost.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/RacingPost & http://twitter.com/RP_TV Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/racingpost Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2vq457o SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/racingpost

• published: 21 Aug 2018
• views: 482