Knight Visit Update
It was great to see so many new horse racing syndicate owners at Charlie’s yesterday. After an easy canter on the “flat Gallop” he did a quicker piece of work up Warren Hill. Last time the syndicate was at Charlie’s, Knight worked up Warren Hill for the first time and found it tough going. Yesterday he took it all in his stride (literally!). All being well, he will soon start working twice up Warren Hill, which will give Charlie a better idea of how close he is to being ready for the racecourse. I am sure everyone who was at Charlie’s yesterday will agree that although Knight is progressing nicely, he still needs to strengthen and mature physically. This will happen over the winter but the plan remains for him to race a couple of the times this season, probably in October/ November. Charlie would prefer to run him on the turf than the all-weather and he will certainly need some cut in the ground.
Tomorrow, Surrey Gold will be entered in the Melrose Handicap at York on Saturday. Although the forecast is for dry weather between now and the race, Hughie is of the opinion that we should enter him as the Melrose has been the target for a while and it would be very frustrating if rain did arrive at the end of the week. Let’s be honest the weather has been pretty unpredictable this summer!!
If we are beaten by the weather at York, the next suitable race is the Lanark Silver Bell at Hamilton on 27th August. This is a 0-95 handicap over 1m 4f and open to older horses. Although it is a long way for horse and syndicate owners to travel, Hughie is keen to run him as soon as possible as he is ready to run and he feels that the steep uphill finish at Hamilton would really suit Gold. Again, if the ground is too firm at Hamilton there are options at Ascot and Haydock early September.
Nicky Henderson has provided an update to say it was time to start picking up the work for both Gran Luna and Surrey Quest. This is ahead of his initial expectations when they came back from their break. Gran Luna is definitely more forward than Nicky was expecting and feels she will be ready to run in September. He believes she is very well handicapped and so will want to take advantage of this for a couple of races before hopefully aiming higher. Surrey Quest is also very well and has started schooling in preparation for hurdling next season. He has been sent to Lew House Stables, a specialist pre-training and jumping academy run by ex-jump jockey Marcus Foley. Quest will be there for another 7-10 days to learn the basics and will then return to Seven Barrows to continue his education. Quest is likely to be ready to race in October.
Not too much to add for Surrey Princess and Surrey Mist. Princess will finally return to the gallops this week with the aim of getting her fir to run in September and Mist will have a further week on the easy list due to sore shins, he’ll hopefully be back in full training by the end of the month.
Entries and other Possible Plans/Events 2021
August
Saturday 21st – Surrey Gold – York (Melrose Handicap)
Friday 27th – Surrey Gold – Hamilton (Lanark Silver Bell)
October
Saturday 2nd – Surrey Mist – Paris Longchamp (Arqana Sales Race)
Saturday 2nd – Surrey Gold – Paris Longchamp (Prix Chaudenay)