26th January Update
The debut of your horse can be the most anticipated race as the dream is alive until they run. There is a good mixture of anxiousness and excitement, hoping they do well as well as praying they come home safely. As we had an early pre-race nerve quencher at Warwick last Monday you could see that feeling on the owners faces, some having waited 2 years for their Surrey Racing debut. Sea Presenting has certainly matured physically in the past few months since her move from Ireland and although she wasn’t the smallest, there were some powerful looking mares circling the parade ring. We feel that she is a 3-mile chaser in the making, and we probably won’t see the best of her for at least a year, maybe longer, so she will improve as she fills out and steps up in distance. We also felt we got unlucky with the divisional split, our division having more than its fair share of fancied horses including a Henderson/McManus horse, That’s Nice, that was 12-1 (now best 33-1) for the Mares Novice Hurdle at the Festival and Miss Cynthia who came 4th in the Group 1 Prix du Cadran on Arc day and 3rd in the Listed Esher Stakes beating Hughie’s Quickthorn in the process. With SP’s price drifting out to 40-1 we weren’t really expecting too much, maybe something to work with in the future, a chance for her to enjoy racing under rules, and for connections to learn more about the horse as we plan future races.
The race itself was a fair gallop, the main protagonists, with the benefit of experience, seemed to be at ease with the early pace. Kevin said afterwards that Sea Presenting was flat to the boards for the whole race, but she hung in there and with 4 furlongs left we thought we could get a top 6 finish which would have been great. Coming over the last and moving into 5th place we started to get a bit more vocal! Kevin threw a bit more weight behind the finishing drive, she chased hard and (we thought) crossed the line in 2nd place only for the judge to overrule us and place us behind the two aforementioned horses, beaten a comfortable length by the winner but only by the nod for second, we’ve been there before, let’s hope that in 2025 the nods fall our way a bit more often!
A very encouraging debut that warmed a chilly afternoon, too cold for champagne, we’ll save that for another time. With her attitude, winning races will come, especially in the knowledge that the best is still a way off. Sea Presenting was fine for the experience and now will head to a mares only maiden in February with Lingfield on the 11th being the target, if that is too soon then the back up is Huntingdon on the 20th.
We did think Surrey Lord may run last week, but he needs more work having missed out on much needed work as the gallops have been frozen. I went along to watch him work at Epsom Downs on Tuesday and to me he looks even more a bull of a horse, he must take a lot to get fit. There are plenty of options in February (including Wetherby on Saturday), the next race is one we want to win, so its probably more about the opposition rather than the conditions.
We should have two runners this week (or at least by the time you read the next newsletter – which could be on Monday, apologies in advance!). Surrey Noir will line up on Saturday at Machecoul, which is southwest of Nantes. Surrey Noir is sound and continues to train easily although that hasn’t been translated to the track although we feel that in the last 3 races the jockeys haven’t given him a real chance. However, he’s not a champion horse so we are looking for him to race at Machecoul which has similar conditions to the race he won at Vannes, and then he will head to a claimer later in the month, best wishes to the owners.
In the UK we will have Surrey Quest back in front of the ITV cameras as he will line up at Sandown on Saturday or Musselburgh on Sunday (hence the newsletter delay!). The £50k Masters Handicap at Sandown is a class 2 chase over 3 miles currently scheduled for 3.42pm, whilst the £75k Edinburgh National is a longer class 2 chase over nearly 4 miles, currently due at 2.25pm. Both are right-handed which we have tried to avoid in the past, but we think he’ll handle that ok. On Tuesday. Quest will have an entry into the Grand National and with the weights to include performances up to February 9th, realistically, if Quest has a chance of making the Liverpool line up then he needs to win next weekend by a few lengths and get a 7-pound hike in the weights.
Surrey Shadow is well and has been entered into the Lincoln at Doncaster on March 29th although if anyone is thinking if taking the 50-1 available the real aim is the Spring Handicap (the Silver Lincoln) on the same card, which is for those horses who aren’t handicapped high enough for the Lincoln. We feel the Lincoln would be a tough race for a horse who would have only had 4 runs by then. He’ll have a comeback race on the all-weather in February, no indication as to where from Tom although we’re guessing (see below).
No news on the rest of the horses. In some other news, the BHA have increased riding fees by 3% paid for by the owners, without any collaboration with the owners! I wonder when they will increase prize money, it does seem very one way right now, as the BHA also raised participant fees by nearly 4%. The riding fee payable to Flat jockeys will increase to £167.67 while jump jockeys will receive £227.92. (On top we pay 1% of the riding fee to the Trustees of the Professional Riders Insurance Scheme and £4.50 into the Professional Riders Career Ending Insurance (CEI) Scheme, plus VAT on the lot).
We thought we’d have 4 runners in January but only had 2, we think we will have 5 in February!
Good luck to all those involved with Surrey Noir and Surrey Quest next weekend.
Possible races and events.
February
Saturday 1st – Surrey Quest – Sandown – 3.42pm
Surrey Noir – Machecoul – likely AM
Sunday 2nd – Surrey Quest – Musselburgh – 2.25pm
Tuesday 11th – Sea Presenting - Lingfield
Wednesday 12th – Surrey Shadow – Kempton
Wednesday 19th – Surrey Shadow – Kempton
Thursday 20th – Sea Presenting - Huntingdon
Saturday 22nd – Surrey Quest - Newcastle
March
Saturday March 8th - Surrey Shadow/Surrey Moon @ Tom Clover stable Visit
Saturday 22nd - Surrey King/Surrey Fire @ Hughie Morrison stable Visit
Saturday 29th – Surrey Shadow - Doncaster
April
Saturday 5th – Surrey Quest - Aintree
Saturday 12th – Surrey Quest - Ayr