February 9th Update
Well, we certainly clocked up the miles (and alcohol!) in the past 7 days, but it was great fun and not a too shabby effort to have a 3rd, 3rd, and 4th. It does depend on your expectations to how happy you are with the run and being the optimistic owners that we are we hoped all three would have gone a place or two better!
After the jaunt to Edinburgh, we travelled to the slightly closer to home Ludlow for Sea Presenting’s second run over hurdles. It’s fair to say we expected her to go close to winning this race and although 3rd is a very good effort, the Racing Post rated the performance as 2 pounds lower than her debut, where we would have hoped for an improvement. We’re a tough crowd to please! However, there are certainly reasons to be positive, the two in front were older mares and that does make a difference. We feel the real positive though comes from the sectionals and the race was probably lost in the first two furlongs when Kevin struggled to get her in a more forward position. Sea Presenting’s last 4-furlong time was the quickest in the field and her last furlong time was super impressive.
She will be in a better position next time which could be at Huntingdon on February 20th in another mare’s only maiden race, which is an EBF qualifier, with the final at Newbury later in March.
Friday, we travelled to the much closer to home Kempton for Surrey Lord’s last bumper. His first two were consistent with a 3rd and a 5th finish, but the form of those races hasn’t worked out very well and we thought he’d have to improve 10-15 lbs to finish in the top 6. Lord put in a mature performance and certainly held his own in what we feel will turn out to be a good race, finishing a close 4th, not quite bringing up a week’s 3rd place hat trick! The race was 9 seconds faster than the earlier division on ground that had certainly deteriorated so again reasons to be positive and the RPR rated that performance 12 pounds better than the first two. Lord was great yesterday and now he will now go hurdling in early March probably staying at 2 miles for now as Toby feels he’s got pace, seems to be last off the bridle, and probably needs to be hitting the line stronger to want further.
Surrey Quest was fine after his return from Scotland, and we will look at the Grimthorpe at Doncaster on March 1st, the Midlands National could be an option but that’s usually a very attritional race, and then off to Ayr in April to hopefully go one place better in the Scottish Grand National.
We are racing again on Wednesday and this time the return of flat racing for us with Surrey Shadow making his reappearance after his serious pelvic injury, which kept him on the sidelines for 222 days, in a 7f novice race at Southwell scheduled for 2.05. Shadow has been working well at home, and this is the ideal race to hopefully break his maiden, with training partner Neil Callan booked for the ride. Good luck to the patient owners, it’s great to have him back and we are really excited for the season ahead.
Some more good news, Surrey Moon is back in training after getting the go ahead from the vet this week after his growth plate issues. The break would have done him the world of good and we can’t wait to see him when we have the owners visit to Tom’s on March 8th.
We popped into Hughie’s enroute to Ludlow to see Surrey Fire and Surrey King. Surrey Fire did suffer with a bad infection after his gelding operation last Autumn and lost a lot of weight, but he’s bounced back well in the past two months and is now overweight but that gives the team something to work with and he’ll gradually get fitter for his seasonal return in April. Surrey King is fabulous and really doing everything that’s being asked of him, Hughie is very happy with his progress and although a horse for next year he’ll be racing late summer, probably initially over a mile. Amazingly we still have one share left in Surrey King despite being an attractive well-bred colt who we feel we secured at a bargain price, from a world champion miler by a Group 3 winning mare – you are hard to please! Saturday March 22nd, we have an owners visit arranged so a chance to see both horses on the gallops.
Surrey Etoile continues to impress on the Chantilly gallops, whilst we are looking at options to race or retire Surrey Noir which we will discuss with the owners in the next day or two.
Good luck to Surrey Shadow - bring on the flat season !!
Possible races and events.
February
Wednesday 12th – Surrey Shadow –Southwell
Thursday 20th – Sea Presenting - Huntingdon
March
Saturday March 1st - Surrey Quest - Doncaster
Saturday March 8th - Surrey Shadow/Surrey Moon @ Tom Clover stable Visit
Saturday March 15th – Surrey Quest - Uttoxeter
Saturday 22nd - Surrey King/Surrey Fire @ Hughie Morrison stable Visit
Saturday 29th – Surrey Shadow - Doncaster
April
Saturday 12th – Surrey Quest - Ayr