The English raider Premier League stars will be cheering on in the Golden Eagle

A horse owned by several players from Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, including Premier League veteran James Milner, will be hoping the Golden Eagle heads back to England for a second straight year.

Twelve months after Lake Forest snuck along the rails to pinch the $10 million Sydney feature for trainer William Haggas and owner Tony Bloom, who owns the Brighton club, Seagulls Eleven will attempt to kick his own goal at Randwick on Saturday.

Milner has only been used sparingly for Brighton, who play Leeds this weekend, and will not be trackside for the race – nor will his teammates and fellow owners, including Danny Welbeck, Bart Verbruggen, Jason Steele and Adam Lallana.

Michael Owen, another English football legend, who owns Manor House Stables, where Seagulls Eleven is trained, will be in Dubai running a football clinic.

Trainer Hugo Palmer, who spent a couple of years working with Gai Waterhouse at Randwick, when the stable had Tuesday Joy, More Joyous, Manhattan Rain and Northern Meteor, was keen to return to Australia. However, he said the players were split on whether to send the horse, which carries Brighton’s blue and white colours and is named after one of the club’s nicknames, to the other side of the world.

“When they bought him as a yearling, all the players were with Brighton, but at least one of them has since left,” Palmer told this masthead.

“There was actually a bit of division in the ownership when it came to the Golden Eagle. A few of them were against rolling the dice and writing a big cheque to come to Australia. James got the players into this horse, and he was definitely keen.

“The horse has given the players a lot of pleasure. But professional sports stars are a lot busier than most of us expect, they work hard, and don’t have as much free time as you’d think. A lot of the boys are still yet to watch the horse race live.”

Seagulls Eleven has raced in elite company for most of his 11 starts, had no luck in the National Stakes in Ireland last September, found interference again when racing in California, and “shat himself” when low on confidence in the 2000 Guineas in May.

But the gelding gradually rediscovered his confidence, and when he won at Goodwood in August, Australian Turf Club racing manager Nevesh Ramdhani floated the Golden Eagle idea to Palmer.

Palmer, who has been training for more than a decade and married an Australian woman, said two key lessons learned from Waterhouse had helped shape his training style.

“Gai’s horses were always supremely fit, and I try to make sure my horses are the same,” Palmer said.

“Secondly, and hopefully this holds me in good stead for this trip, is how Gai never worried about the opposition, she only worried about her own horse. For me, there’s no way to judge what my horse’s ability is against the Australian form, there are no strands we can draw together – I’m completely in the dark about the opposition in the Golden Eagle, so all I can do is worry about my horse.”

Tom Marquand has been booked to ride Seagulls Eleven in the Golden Eagle, with unbeaten mare Autumn Glow the even-money favourite with bookies. The barrier draw for the race will be held early Tuesday.

As for working with Owen, Palmer said: “We were friends for a number of years before he asked me to come and work for him. We have a great relationship, he absolutely loves the game, and he’s brilliant at getting his enthusiasm for the sport across to other people. He does a fabulous job selling horses and racing.”