Another Week - Another Winner !

Guess what !! 

Another week – another winner!  

In the past four months we’ve had 15 runs from 5 different horses, with 7 winners (all 5 have won) and 4 places which is simply sensational by anyone’s imagination !

Gran Luna is a horse racing syndicate’s dream, plus she’s certainly been handled very well both on and off the track. She’s a pretty tough mare who battles on but because of her problem she can’t be pushed for a sustained period so Nico has to wait until near the end to drive her forward which leads to very exciting finishes! She won her 5th race on Monday (from only 9 runs) making her equal first with Surrey Blaze of Surrey Racing winners. Nico rode his 4th winner for us, he’s now equal first with Oisin Murphy, and that was our first ever run at Ludlow making it the 21st course we have won at. Congratulations to all involved.  

Gran Luna has come out of the race very well, so well in fact that Nicky is already looking at races to run her again! Provided the ground doesn’t dry out too much Nicky is inclined to give her another couple of runs this season, fields will be small so he sees it as an ideal opportunity to pick up some prize money and maybe even some black type. We will target a Mares Listed race at Cheltenham on 14th April.  

Surrey Quest was due to run yesterday at Newbury but Nicky and Nico felt the ground had dried out too much and the going would just be too fast for him. Nicky said he’s too good a horse (and is back to his pre Doncaster level) to risk in a novice hurdle. That’s not the season over although that would have been his last race but Nicky would still like to find him one more before the he takes a break. Whilst it’s frustrating for the owners, especially at short notice, the trainers and us always make the calls with the horses best interest at the forefront of any decision making. That’s one of the reasons our strike rate is so high – we live to fight another day when conditions are more favourable.    

Charlie couldn’t have been happier with Surrey Knight’s racecourse debut last Saturday. He was a complete professional from the moment he left the yard to the moment he got back from Doncaster. He did however come back very jarred up from his race and it looks like for the time being we are going to have to be very careful with what ground we run him on. He has had a a very easy week this week but thankfully was okay to be ridden again on Friday. The winner of the race, Groundbreaker, who has an entry in the Dante, has been given a very high OR opening mark of 90 whilst Surrey Knight picked up a Racing Post Rating of 83 which is the highest any of our horses have ever received for their debut (Surrey Thunder’s was 81). Charlie wasn’t the only person impressed, his odds for the German Derby have been cut from 75 to 50 !   

No new news on Surrey Noir, Surrey Gold or Surrey Belle. 

We went to see George yesterday mainly to give a couple of win bonuses to Thierry and Pat. We have been asked a few times of late about tipping as it’s is a bit of an industry tradition. Steve and I don’t put into staff Christmas boxes but we reward the stable staff after wins, giving the handler £100 (or more if a bigger race) after every win. I know some of you hand over money at the racecourse and from the reports we get back that is truly greatly appreciated but there’s absolutely no obligation. However, If your horse is being very well looked after, looks the part and performs well, then please do feel free to hand over a small gift to the lad or lass who looks after it.      

All three of the horses at George’s looked extremely well. Surrey Charm continues to take everything in her stride and despite being small (weighed in at just 390 kilos this week) her temperament will take her places. She’ll have another outing at Kempton either this week or next and if that goes well we will get her racing, probably early May.     

Surrey Mist looks like he’s grown every time we see him (by comparison he weights 450 kg) and is ready to tackle his hefty 83 official rating. The team feel 10 furlongs is where he should start his handicapping and so he’ll have entries at Sandown and Doncaster on Friday April 22nd. We did discuss French entries with George but he felt we would now have to budget £4k to travel and so he’d rather Mist be rated in the 90s before taking on a Conditions race and meeting similar standard of horses under level weights.  

Surrey Princess is over her small problem after a stone upset her hoof so she’ll be ready to run again in a couple of weeks time. She’ll have entries at Leicester and Wolves on Saturday 23rd April. She’s so chilled now, a totally different horse and we feel she has a couple more wins left in her.   

We take our horse welfare very seriously so it was good to read this week that analysis of data from the 13th year of reporting to the Equine Injury Database (EID) shows a decrease in the rate of fatal injury in 2021 (1.39 per 1,000 starts) compared to 2020 (1.41 per 1,000 starts). This is the third year in a row that the number has decreased, and the 2021 rate of fatal injury is the lowest number since the EID started collecting data in 2009. Based on the 2021 data, 99.86% of flat racing starts at the racetracks participating in the EID were completed without a fatality. For 2-year-olds, the fatality rate in 2021 was 0.98, while 3-year-olds showed a 1.52 fatality rate and 4-year-olds and up came in at 1.38. Route races continued to be safer compared to sprints, as races beyond a mile showed a 1.19 fatality rate compared to 1.46 for six-to-eight-furlong races and 1.35 for races shorter than six panels. Synthetic races produced just 0.73 fatalities per 1,000 starts and turf racing 1.25.  

Have a super week ahead    

2022
April
Thursday 14th – Gran Luna – Cheltenham (Listed)
Saturday 16th – Surrey Gold – Musselburgh (Heritage Handicap)
Friday 22nd – Surrey Mist – Doncaster
Friday 22nd – Surrey Mist – Sandown
Saturday 23rd – Surrey Princess – Leicester
Saturday 23rd – Surrey Princess – Wolves
Sunday 24th – Hughie Morrison Open Day
May
Wednesday 25th – Surrey Racing Golf Day @ Silvermere Golf Couse
July
Sunday 3rd – Surrey Knight (153rd German Derby, Hamburg) ) 83 left in – next stage April 11th
https://www.deutscher-galopp.de/gr/renntage/rennen.php?id=1330172&d=20220703&s=N
August
Monday 1st – Surrey Noir – EBF Ballyhane Stakes – Naas Racecourse, Ireland
September
Thursday 8th – Surrey Noir – Doncaster – Weatherbys Stakes