St James's Palace Stakes: Galileo strikes Gold again

In what was widely billed as a three-cornered fight between the three Guineas winners, Galileo Gold was the outsider of the trio at 6/1 following his defeat to Awtaad on soft ground at the Curragh last time as impressive Deauville winner The Gurkha was sent off the 4/5 favourite.

With pacemaker Cymric taking them along, Frankie Dettori always had the winner well placed in his slipstream and was the first of the principals to commit in the straight when taking it up over a furlong out.

Awtaad and The Gurkha never looked like mounting a telling challenge, Ryan Moore having to switch The Gurkha round the other Irish colt before staying on strongly to be beaten a length and a quarter at the line, with Awtaad another half-length back in third.

Giving his trainer Hugo Palmer his first winner at the Royal meeting, Galileo Gold followed in the footsteps of Gleneagles, Dawn Approach and Frankel as recent 2000 Guineas winners to have also won the St James's Palace.

Asked how his horse turned the tables on Awtaad, Palmer said: "I don't know how we turned it around, and I'm not sure we did. He ran a huge race in Ireland, but he wasn't able to use his stride there - he was out perfectly quick enough but the best horse won on the day.

"In the Newmarket Guineas and again today his stride was never broken - Frankie was able to get the horse into the most magnificent rhythm and he just galloped and galloped. That's what he needs. It just shows how at every level in sport you need everything to go right. One little thing went wrong in Ireland and we finished second, today everything went right and we won. That's the difference.

"It was a tough challenge but Galileo Gold is the 2000 Guineas winner and the Newmarket Guineas is the best Group One of the year. When the ratings come out at the end of the year, it is the best Group One and we had to hold that up, having been beaten in Ireland. Life did not go well in Ireland but it went much today and he got the most magnificent ride from the widest draw. He has done it and I think it is fair to say he has proved himself to be the best three-year-old colt in Europe.

"It was hugely thrilling and a great race. It was the battle of three Guineas winners. It is funny because it is very soft ground today but it seems that pretty well the best horse has won every race. We haven't yet had a surprise.

"No one knows their way around here better than Frankie Dettori and it's one of the great treats of the horse being owned by Sheikh Joaan that I am able to call upon Frankie [who is retained by the Sheikh] to ride this colt. It takes a lot of the variables out.

"He [Galileo Gold] is so quick out of the stalls that we followed Godolphin's pacemaker [Cymric] and the rest were behind us all the way. I thought the two pacemakers would go forward, that Awtaad and The Gurkha would get boxed in, and while their jockeys were too cute for that, they were a long way out of their ground, while Galileo Gold was able to sit on the pace. He has five-furlong speed, and everyone could see today why he didn't run in the Derby, because Frankie was restraining him at champion-mile pace behind the leader. That would have gone all wrong at Epsom.

"If the horse had been beaten today and Frankie had come in and said 'let's go a mile and a quarter' the Eclipse might have been a consideration, but they have to come and beat us in the [Qatar] Sussex Stakes. Since his owner sponsors the race I would think we will go there next."