February 25th Update
It was good to have our first owners visit of the year yesterday at Hughie Morrison’s Summerdown yard in East Ilsley. It was a lovely cold, crisp morning and thankfully the rain stayed away although the recent deluge made driving to the gallops a tad treacherous!
However, we heard disappointing news, Surrey Fire, after work Friday, showed signs of soreness. He wasn’t lame but there is a little bit of swelling/fluid in his front legs so we missed seeing him on the gallops. He’s been put on a course of anti-inflammatories and will have an easy 3 weeks on the walker before being scanned. He did have a walk in the yard and looks like he’s wintered really well, he’s a very imposing colt who we have high hopes for.
Another who has wintered well is Surrey Charm and although she’s never going to be the biggest horse, she looks more muscly and compact. All going well she will be the first of the three at Hughie’s to race this coming flat season, probably at the end of April with initial thoughts being at galloping tracks, there are races to suit her at Leicester and Yarmouth. We know she’ll handle soft ground so that won’t be an issue, but she would like a fast run race where she will stay on. She will probably start the campaign over 10 furlongs but we feel she wouldn’t have any problems over 12f. This time last year she seemed to have low immunity and was full of cold after a stressful 2 year old season but she’s totally different this year and hopefully has a few pounds of improvement to come.
In contrast, Surrey Belle didn’t have such a good break. She came back underweight and it’s taken time to get her ready to start training again. She only started hack cantering on Thursday so it’s going to be a slower process to get her race fit and we don’t expect to see her on the racecourse until May. The general consensus was that she under performed last season but she’s a horse that was always going to improve from 3-4 years old and so once she starts racing hopefully she can put a winning string together. We know she stays 1m 6f and as she strengthens then maybe even further. Belle won’t want it too firm or too heavy, and we know she handles the all weather so there will be plenty of options when she’s ready to race.
Surrey Mist has been walking since the beginning of February and is leg is handling well. He is also still turned out, is starting to loose his winter coat and all going well the (specific) plan is for him to start cantering on April 17th.
Surrey Force is looking very well and has recently started doing two canters a couple of times a week. Kevin will start taking him up Long Hill next week and will keep building up his work weekly. He hasn’t been able to go on the grass yet due to the huge amount of rain, but he will start using the turf as soon as there is some decent ground.
Surrey Noir has also stepped up to 2 canters a day on Warren Hill and is doing everything that’s being asked of him, while Surrey Shadow is pleasing Tom with his work. Both Tom and Charlie are looking forward to showing both horses off to us on Saturday 9th where we will get more insight of the plans for the season ahead.
We may have a runner this week!
Surrey Quest is well and we have entered him into the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival which is a amateur jockey’s handicap over 3m 2f on the Thursday (14th). Whilst we would absolutely love to have a runner at Cheltenham, we only want to run in the big festivals where we have a realistic chance of winning and currently BET365 don’t think we do (50-1) ! We may have a better chance in The Grimthorpe at Doncaster on Saturday, another 3m 2f handicap. Entries are tomorrow so we’ll look to see how competitive it is, we also have another option at Sandown on March 9th. Races at Sandown are run in a completely different style to those at Doncaster so although the Sandown race is shorter, it could possibly be run to suit Quest better. We’d like to get another win from him before possibly looking at more ‘marquee’ races at the end of April.
Have a good week ahead and do look out for Quest next weekend – good luck to the owners if he runs at Doncaster.
Possible races and events
March
Saturday 2nd – Surrey Quest – Doncaster – The Grimthorpe
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
Thursday 14th – Surrey Quest – Cheltenham – Kim Muir
April
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