Laureate Crown

Hugo Palmer, whose yard in Malpas, Cheshire, has sent out 66 winners this season, has been candid about the horse's journey. After a winning debut, Palmer admits the team probably asked too much of Laureate Crown too soon. The horse was subsequently gelded — a surgical procedure that often settles and focuses a young horse — and Palmer has said openly that, being a very big animal, he simply needed time to mature. That patience appears to have paid off handsomely.

The breakthrough moment came at Ascot in July 2025, when Laureate Crown won a Class 2 race — one of the better races you will find in Britain — on a card at one of the sport's most famous venues. The team's racing manager, Alex Cole, admitted the language in the stand was colourful two furlongs from home. What matters is what happened at the line. Palmer had suggested the run might come too soon; instead, Laureate Crown announced himself as something considerably more exciting than expected. The plan afterwards was to aim him at a Group 2 race — the very top tier of competition — at Goodwood.

Most recently, Laureate Crown won at Sandown Park just this week, confirming that the Ascot performance was no fluke. Winning 3 from 5 overall, at a rate of roughly 3 in every 5 races, is the kind of record that turns heads in any company. For a horse that was once described as needing time and space to grow into himself, this is a transformation worth watching.