NEWMARKET trainer Hugo Palmer is excited about running his stable star Galileo Gold in the first proper test of 2017 for older milers in Europe, the Group One Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes, at Newbury next month.

The four-year-old Paco Boy colt has long had the £350,000 race over the straight mile as his target.

Palmer, who last year sent out Galileo Gold to win the first British Classic, the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, at Newmarket in May and the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, believes his charge is better than ever.

He said today: “Galileo Gold is absolutely there within himself and all we have to do now is nervously tick him over into the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes in just under four weeks’ time.

“All his really serious work is done and we took him for a racecourse gallop at Newmarket last Thursday.

“Last year, we ran him three times quickly at the start of the season (winning the two Group One races and finishing second in the Irish 2,000 Guineas) and it was then quite a struggle to get him to Goodwood (for the Group One Qatar Sussex Stakes on July 27) absolutely spot-on and I will always have a tiny suspicion that he wasn’t quite at his peak (when beaten a neck by The Gurkha).”

He continued: “But he wasn’t beaten very far and I regret now taking him to France (eighth, Group One Prix Jacques Le Marois on August 14) so hot on the heels of that run. The horse did not have the time to relax and it buzzed him up and he never really calmed down for the rest of the year.

“I think it is fair to say when Frankie (Dettori) got off him at Ascot (fifth in the Group One Queen Elizabeth II Stakes) after he had had two less than pleasurable times with the horse, their relationship was a bit on the rocks.

“The main purpose of Thursday’s racecourse gallop was to remind Frankie what an engine this horse has; and for them to get back into love with each other.

“Galileo Gold had a lovely break and has settled down an enormous amount.”