2023 ends with a Bang!
So we finished the racing year yesterday with one of Surrey Racing’s greatest performances which had all the syndicate owners shouting, at the course or at the screen as Surrey Quest and James Bowen fought an incredible finish after 3.25 miles on soft ground to win the iconic 60 year old Mandarin Trophy. A history lesson ... Mandarin was a small, stout gelding of great courage who ran for eight seasons. He won the first running the Hennessy Gold Cup (the cup offered by his owner, Madame Hennessy of the French cognac family). In both 1957 and 1959 he won the King George VI Chase. At age 11, in 1962, he came back to win the Hennessy Gold Cup, and then went on to win the Cheltenham Gold. Later that season he was shipped to France to run in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris and into the history books, for during that race, at the fourth of thirty fences, Mandarin's rubber bit snapped. He and champion jockey Fred Winter ran the rest of the way without benefit of rein and rail, relying on balance and experience to keep going. Winter had to use his weight to shift Mandarin away from going off course near the end of the race, and the strain of that unbalance bowed Mandarin's tendon, and so for the final fence and run-in Mandarin was running on three legs, heart, and no reins. After this historic race, Mandarin retired to pasture and a life of light riding as his former trainer's Fulke Walwyn, hack.
We have the trophy here and some of those famous names engraved in it include Mill House (who was only bettered by Arkle), the hurdling GOAT Night Nurse (rated 182 !) Grand National winners Maori Venture and Party Politics, Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Jodami, and in 2002 a horse called Eltigri, trained from the same yard in Dorking as Surrey Quest.
It’s been a remarkable transformation which started with Jackie in Cornwall and continued by Toby, who has been so meticulous with Quest and deservingly now has his best ever result as a trainer, surely there is more to come for him and the team at Henfold Stables. Surrey Quest was absolutely fine this morning, sound, ate up and even had a skip round the paddock! James said ”he’s never travelled like that in a race, I gave him a kick into the first, and was straight into my hands and like that the whole race. Jumping was good, even if he didn’t meet them right, he was still quicker than everything else. That wet soft ground was grand for him, but he wouldn’t want soft if it was really tacky and holding.”
What next for Quest - he’s so effective over this trip because he can travel strongly at that pace, which gives him a class edge over the others. We are going to have a lot of fun plotting out future races for him, there are so many good options which will be in top televised Saturday races. We will see what the handicapper does on Tuesday before we start getting stuck into plans.
Many congratulations to all those involved, this is another horse where we’ve had to be very patient and eventually make some difficult choices, not always with us all in agreement !! We don’t always get things right but we have been patting ourselves on the back this morning!
That win culminates a remarkable run from the end of June where we’ve had 16 runs, 5 of those wins, and 6 places! An astonishing 69% win/place rate. All of the young horses turn a year older in the morning and the future is very bright indeed. If we keep this run going for 2024 we are going to have a very good time of it!
Unfortunately with the frustrations of Surrey Lord and Surrey Fortune we only have one flag bearer for the early part of 2024 with Surrey Quest (although what a fantastic flag bearer he will be).
Surrey Fortune will be moving to Cornwall on January 4th where for the colder months he will be turned out during the day and brought in for the nights. Once it gets warmer he’ll be turned out full time probably until the end of May to give him a full rest and let the legs get back to normal. He’ll then start walking and being ridden through to the end of June, after which he’ll have more serious work to get him ready for the season opener.
It won’t be long though until the horse owners see the flat horses in action and those on the WhatsApp would have seen what a beast we have in Surrey Shadow! He looks amazing and we can’t wait for his debut on the turf, all going well at the end of March. Surrey Force should be out before then as he’ll have an all weather opener. We will organise a breakfast at Hughie’s in February after Surrey Charm and Surrey Belle return from Culworth Farm and re-join Surrey Fire in training and hear Hughie’s thoughts on the year ahead.
Surrey Mist is having a scan in January which we hope will bring good news and a return to Newmarket. We’ll organise a couple of visits to see Surrey Noir and the three other aforementioned horses and hear the plans for those in the season ahead.
There will be many changes to the Programme Book next year as the BHA try to make racing more appealing to the wider audience. The following changes have already been announced for the first quarter (Programme Book 1).
+1/+2 – Horses rated one or two pounds above the advertised rating band will NOT be allowed to run in Class 5 & 6 Handicaps throughout PB1 2024
Divisions – The threshold for divisions at AWT fixtures will drop from 18 to 16 runners. Races with 27+ declarations that is the only eligible race to divide will divide three times.
Cancellation of races – Any Class 4 to 6 Handicap that receive 3 or fewer declarations will be cancelled
We will update you as and when we hear more through the new year.
We wish you all a very Happy New Year and may all your dreams come true in 2024!