Patagonia Girl

Trained by Hugo Palmer at his yard in Malpas, Cheshire — which has sent out 67 winners already this season — she has built a career record of 3 wins and 7 places from 14 races, which works out at roughly 1 win in every 5 starts, or 21% across the board. That is a decent return, but the Chester numbers tell the more interesting story: 2 wins from 6 races there is a 33% win rate, and it suggests she is a horse who genuinely knows her way around that track. Her most recent win came at Chester in May, around two months ago, and she has raced as recently as yesterday, so she is firmly in the thick of her season.

Her first career win came at Salisbury in June 2025, and Palmer had been optimistic about her trajectory even before that. Speaking last October, he flagged her as a potential contender for the Cheshire Dancer — a race with black type on offer, meaning it carries prestige beyond the prize money — and pointed to the fact that she was still physically growing as a reason to expect improvement. Horses who develop late can keep getting better into their four and five-year-old seasons, and Palmer clearly felt she had more to give. That belief appears to have been well placed.

After her Chester win in May, Palmer spoke warmly about jockey Jack Nicholls, who had a difficult draw to work with but judged the pace of the race shrewdly to get the result. Palmer also noted her breeding — by Australia out of a Camelot mare — which keeps options open for her future, both on the track and beyond it. She is a horse with a career total that sits comfortably at Class 4 level for now, but with a trainer who believes she has the scope to go further, and a track where she already looks at home.