James Milner and Danny Welbeck's racehorse set for ‘extremely rare’ £5million race
Seagulls Eleven, owned by several current and former Brighton & Hove Albion players including the Premier League winners James Milner and Danny Welbeck, runs in the Golden Eagle in Sydney, Australia on Saturday
James Milner and his Brighton teammates past and present will have to set their alarms early on Saturday to see their star racehorse tackle one of Australia’s richest races. Milner, Danny Welbeck and Lewis Dunk are some of the members of the Two Plus Three Two Plus Four syndicate which owns Seagulls Eleven.
The three-year-old is trained by Hugo Palmer at the Cheshire stables of ex-Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen. He has won twice, recording a Group 3 victory at Glorious Goodwood in the summer and earned more than £160,000. Seagulls Eleven is now in Sydney, Australia, prepared to tackle the £5million Golden Eagle at Randwick racecourse. The race will be run at 5.45am GMT, nine hours before Brighton’s home match against Leeds United in the Premier League.
It will complete a huge 24 hours for the Palmer stable which also has a runner at the Breeders’ Cup in the US, where Ardisia contests the Juvenile Turf on Friday. Ardisia is owned by the mother-in-law of Olympion turned broadcaster Sam Quek.
"It's going to be a huge few hours for the whole team, with a runner in California, and one in Sydney,” said Palimer, speaking to Coral. “These are the big days we aim for as a yard, taking on the best around the world.
“Ardisia has been a miracle really, it’s incredible to think we’ve gone from scrambling home in a Goodwood nursery to running in the Breeders’ Cup, it’s been quite a transformation.
“Our horse has travelled over well, he’s enjoying the Californian sunshine, and we haven’t had to do too much with him since Ascot. He’s a smashing horse, he tries his heart out, we’re lucky to have him and we’re looking forward to running him."
Jason Steele and former Brighton players Pascal Gross and Billy Gilmour are also part of the Seagulls Eleven squad.
"This has been the target for this horse since he won at Glorious Goodwood, so it’s hugely exciting that it’s all gone to plan since,” Palmer said. “Races worth this much money, ten million Australian dollars, are obviously extremely rare, so this is a massive day for me, the yard, the owners and the horse. He travelled down earlier this month, and I’m told he’s really thrived in quarantine here.”
Among his opponents will be Lake Forest, another British-trained horse who is part-owned by Brighton’s owner Tony Bloom.
Palmer added: “As you can imagine, it’s going to be a good race, all the form Australian horses are here, and the favourite, Autumn Glow, is unbeaten and might be hard to beat, but we’re rated the same as Lake Forest, who won this last year, so it can be done.”