Palmer keen on Guineas bid for Stenton Glider

Stenton Glider booked her ticket for the Qipco 1000 Guineas when narrowly touched off at Newbury on Saturday.

Reeled in by Ralph Beckett’s Remarquee, with both fillies having just their second starts, the Fred Darling looked well up to standard as a Classic trial this year.

Having won a Chester novice on her debut in September, Stenton Glider was due to run in December, but refused to go in the stalls. She appeared to have done well through the winter, however, and looked in rude health in the Newbury paddock.

Trainer Hugo Palmer believes the striking daughter of Dandy Man warrants her place in the Rowley Mile fillies’ Classic on Sunday week after such a narrow defeat under Tom Marquand.

“Handsome is as handsome does,” laughed the Cheshire-based handler.

“As a trainer, you can’t go making expensive entries like the Guineas with a maiden winner, get beaten two-foot in a trial and then say ‘no’.

“She has got to step up and she’s a 25-1 shot, but she’s only two-foot behind a 6-1 shot. Two foot is nothing.”

Stenton Glider showed plenty of ability, taking a keen hold in the Group Three contest, before being collared inside the last 150 yards.

Palmer has no qualms about the additional furlong in the Guineas as he seeks another Classic success following Galileo Gold’s 2000 Guineas victory in 2016 and the Irish Oaks success of Covert Love in 2015.

He added: “She is going to meet a different test at Newmarket. She’s going to meet a big field and she is going to meet undulations and almost certainly going to encounter quicker ground.

“She showed loads of speed, but I’m certain she’ll stay – and Tom Marquand said a mile will be absolutely no problem to her.

“All her work suggests she’s a miler. She showed loads of speed, but they went very steady. Nothing wanted to lead, the time was very slow for good fillies.

“We feel she will be better on better ground. She could possibly have been a non-runner if her owner hadn’t given up tickets for the snooker World Championships to come and watch her!”

Along with her son Tom, Jane Mairs owns the filly, who is named after the famous racing bicycle invented by her grandfather, Percy Stenton.

The Stenton Glider Cycle Company was based in Ardwick, Manchester, and advertised its machines as ‘The cycle that gives you a sporting chance’.

Palmer added: “Jane’s maiden name was Stenton and her grandfather invented the first drop-handled racing bike, which was called the Stenton Glider, which debuted at the Olympics in the 1920s (Amsterdam 1928).

“All racing bikes now have handles in the drop-handle position and for Jane, who has owned horses in syndicates for a number of years, it has always been her dream to have a horse and call it Stenton Glider.”

Meanwhile, Palmer’s high-class sprinter Flaming Rib, who was runner-up to Perfect Power in the Commonwealth Cup last summer and took a valuable sprint in Doha in February, has settled in well ahead of Sunday’s bid for the six-furlong Chairman’s Sprint Prize in Hong Kong.

“Flaming Rib is in good order,” said Palmer. “He was invited and he has got to raise his game to feature, but he has travelled over there in good shape and seems to love getting on an aeroplane.

“He won well in Doha and seemed to be on the wrong side in Dubai, the way the race panned out.

“It is over six furlongs and he does seem to have produced his best efforts round a bend.”