Group Racing This Week !
A fairly quiet week for us last week, there isn’t too much news to update on, but this week feels like it’s the start of something special with big races and debuts to look forward to, plus the circus comes to Cheltenham! I know there’s a fair few Surrey Racing owners going to The Festival, I’m sure there will be some get togethers so hopefully the weather holds and you will all have a great time.
On to the horses, starting with Surrey Lord who has had an easy week after failing to spark on the gallops. Toby thinks he may be having a growth spurt so hopefully the downtime would have helped. He’ll have a gallop at Box Hill on Tuesday to see whether he has the spark back and If so then we can push on with his debut at Newbury on the 26th.
Surrey Noir has had a two pieces of fast work this weeks, showing a great attitude to not want to be passed which is great. The feeling is that he needs 7 furlongs so he will be aimed at Kempton’s evening meeting on March 29th for his debut in a class 5 restricted novice race currently scheduled to be the first race on the card at 6pm.
Surrey Fortune is having his first ‘racecourse’ experience on Tuesday when Billy is taking him for a spin around Towcester racecourse. That will give us a good idea about what stage he’s at and when we can start thinking about a bumper this spring.
No real news on the other horses.
Finally, Surrey Mist. The rain dances have been working and hopefully we get some more rain this week, but we are off to Paris next weekend for an attempt to win the Prix Exbury, a Group 3 race over 2000m. Mist is very well but no Surrey Racing horse has ever won a race (3rd our best) at this level so we know it’s going to be hard to win and claim the E60 000 (prize money + French bred premiums) first prize. However, it’s going to be great fun travelling out there and enjoying 2 nights with the owners, it’s really living the dream and is what syndicate racing is all about.
https://www.france-galop.com/en/racing/detail/2023/P/UGFjTVVPalZleEExTHF5bDlRRW1uUT09
The race itself, live on Sky Racing, is probably going to be at approx. 3.45 local time, that has yet to be confirmed, with final declarations and times to be set on Thursday. At this stage there are 10 horses entered, with a supplementary stage on Wednesday. The race itself will be a little short for Mist so we will aim to make it a real stamina test as we don’t want the pace to be slow and then it come down to a sprint finish. It was good to see that the form from Mist’s last race in Deauville was franked today when Golden Call, who was 6 lengths back in 5th, hacked up on his seasonal debut, winning a stakes race very easy at Compiegne. Good luck to the owners, what a way to start the flat season!
Possible races and events
2023
March
Saturday 18th – Surrey Mist – Prix Ebury – St Cloud – 16.45
Saturday 25th – Surrey Lord – Newbury – Goffs Bumper
Wednesday 29th Surrey Noir - Kempton
April
Friday 21st Surrey Belle – Newbury
Sunday 23rd Surrey Mist – Gerling Preis - Cologne
Friday 28th Surrey Belle - Sandown
May
Tuesday 16th – Surrey Racing Golf Day