3rd March update

As you would have noticed we decided not to enter Surrey Quest for the Grimthorpe at Doncaster yesterday. We’ve looked at the entries and the 3rd and 5th from the Great Yorkshire Chase were entered, as well as other high rated horses, effectively making the handicap a 0-150. We didn’t think there would be enough of a change in conditions to turnaround 20 lengths from the last race, although with the benefit of hindsight the rain eventually came and with only 2 finishers we will wonder about what if. We will now look at the 4.10 race at Sandown on Saturday (9th) and failing that, we have the Kim Muir entry at Cheltenham, and we will look at Uttoxeter on the 16th. We’ve had a lot of rain in the south (over 40mm) the past few days, but with forecast dry for most of the week, Sandown should have softish ground which will make the class 3, three mile handicap testing especially with the uphill finish, which would be perfect for Quest. 

We have a busy week ahead as before that we are really looking forward to seeing those syndicate owners who are coming along to our Surrey Social on Thursday. At the last count there will be over 20 people popping in for a drink and nibbles. We and be at the Victoria Pub in Surbiton from 6pm, feel free to join but please do let us know in advance if you haven’t already.    

Then on Saturday morning we have another 20 racehorse owners coming along to Newmarket to see Surrey Shadow and Surrey Noir on the gallops before we then skedaddle back to Sandown!  

Surrey Noir continues to work well, two canters a day on Warren Hill. He can’t be too far away from his return, we’ll find out more from  Charlie on Saturday.   

Surrey Shadow will start faster work this week but looks like he still needs a few weeks to fill out but he’s certainly going in the right direction and that quicker work will give his muscles a greater definition. It’s pleasing that his sire continues to impress with yet another stakes winner this week when the very impressive Lazzat went 3 from 3 in France and now has an opening (equivalent) rating of 103.4  Shadow’s half brother, One More Wave, won yesterday at Wolves. Remarkably we still have 10% available (in any size lots above 2.5%) so if you want to see him first hand come along Saturday morning.

Tom is looking for a debut in a novice contest on grass on a galloping track somewhere between 7f-9f. There are two standouts later in April at Beverley and Yarmouth so all going well we will hopefully see him run at one of those meetings. 

The first flat horse to make their seasonal debut should be Surrey Force. He’s already doing faster work over 6 furlongs on the Al Bahathri and will step that up this week to 7f. He’s a much stronger and compact looking horse who is really starting to blossom. He’s not ready for 10 furlongs on the turf yet but he will probably run at Kempton in a restricted novice over a mile on March 13th which is all part of his pre training planning for the turf season where he will be racing over 10-12 furlongs.   

A few weeks ago we lamented the state of the prize money in the UK and it’s obviously the main reason we are looking at racing in France. We did notice however the Chelmsford card on Good Friday – amazing what can be done if the desire is there to pack the racecard.  It’s an unbelievable amount of prize money for a maiden and some fairly low handicap contests. Maybe we should run a sweepstake on how many entries the 7 race card receives !!!  Fair play to Chelmsford, hopefully it has a knock on effect.   

Have a super week ahead, see you Thursday, Saturday morning or maybe Saturday afternoon!   

Good Luck to Surrey Quest and all connections 🤞 

Possible races and events

2024 
March
Thursday 7th – Surrey Social – The Victoria Pub in Surbiton (from 6pm)
Saturday 9th –   Surrey Shadow and Surrey Noir Owners Breakfast (09.15 meet)
                            Surrey Quest – Sandown – 4.10 pm
Wednesday 13th – Surrey Force – Kempton 5.20
Thursday 14th – Surrey Quest – Cheltenham – Kim Muir
Saturday 16th – Surrey Quest - Uttoxeter
April
Wednesday 17th Surrey Shadow Beverley
Tuesday 23rd Surrey Shadow - Yarmouth
Saturday 27th – Surrey Charm – Leicester
Tuesday 30th – Surrey Charm - Yarmouth
May
Thursday 9-11th – Arqana Breeze Up Sale
Tuesday 21st  – Surrey Racing Golf Day – Silvermere Golf Club