Seagulls Eleven flies home for Brighton footballers

Hugo Palmer’s Seagulls Eleven bagged the big-race victory he has long promised in the Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes at Goodwood.

A son of the trainer’s 2000 Guineas hero Galileo Gold, Seagulls Eleven is owned by several current and former Brighton & Hove Albion footballers, including James Milner and Danny Welbeck.

After breaking his duck at Haydock last summer, the three-year-old went on to run with credit in the Superlative Stakes, the National Stakes and the Dewhurst before the end of his juvenile campaign and his best race since his return came when second to Opera Ballo in a Newmarket Listed race three weeks ago.

With Opera Ballo a significant non-runner in this Group Three contest, Seagulls Eleven was one of just four runners to go to post and after taking an early lead under Oisin Murphy, the 11-4 shot found plenty for pressure late on to score by three-quarters of a length from Diego Ventura.

Palmer said: “He can be a handful to saddle but not in a nasty way, he has a kind look in his face and is genuinely versatile.

“Last year he had to run in the Group Ones and ran with great credit, but it’s taken a while for him to get his confidence back.

“Today when they came to him, he had the guts to go and get the job done.

“He’s been invited to the Golden Eagle in Australia and there are 10 million reasons why he should go for that, but first we might give him another at home. It might be that we have to supplement into the Celebration Mile and he’s not in the City of York.”

Diego Ventura is owned by Wathnan Racing, whose racing adviser Richard Brown said: “He has arguably run a career-best race. He was just getting going and Oisin has slightly rolled off the rail on the winner and it has cost him a little bit of momentum, but I don’t think it has made a difference to the result.

“We will talk to Hamad (Al Jehani, trainer) and the team but he is strongest at the line and we will probably try up in trip.”

Richard Hannon’s King Of Cities was the third-placed horse when beaten a length and a quarter under Ryan Moore, with the trainer saying: “He looked like he didn’t help Ryan much to me. It was disappointing not being beaten far.

“There are big races in him but he looks a bit flat-footed sometimes. Ryan thought it might have helped if he had gone on a bit, but they were probably going a good enough gallop if he wanted to. For me, he just does enough.”

Irish 2,000 Guineas runner-up Cosmic Year finished last of the four runners with Colin Keane reporting to Racing TV: “I would say the ground was a little bit against us.

“He relaxed and travelled round nicely but, when we needed him, he wasn’t able to, and I didn’t think we got to the line very strong.

“I would be inclined to come back to seven furlongs. I wouldn’t even rule out a stiff six on nicer ground, where they go hard and you can ride a race on him. Hopefully, he will hit the line better. Today he felt straightforward, it felt like he tried, it just felt like the trip was stretching him.”