Weekly Update - 21st Feb
Our first runner of 2021 didn’t quite go to plan with Gran Luna, who didn’t run as well as we had hoped today, finishing a fairly distant 3rd of 11 at Market Rasen. She came off the bridle a long way out as if something was amiss. The good news s that the breathing op seems to have worked but like all the Henderson horses, they are coming up short, with no winners out of 17 this weekend. Cheltenham will have to missed but if there’s one year to miss Cheltenham, this is the one, she’ll be back!
We had a very entertaining virtual drink and catch up with the owners and George Baker on Zoom last week, the format seemed to work well and judging by the responses from those present it was an enjoyable hour or so. With racing behind closed doors horse racing syndicates have to think of other ways to entertain those who have bought racehorse shares. We have a scheduled catch up with Nicky Henderson this week to find out more about Gran Luna and Surrey Quest.
The week after will be the turned of Joe Tuite. He’s very happy with Surrey Pride who did his first piece of semi fast work on Friday over 7 furlongs with a lead horse. Pride is in great shape and he worked fairly impressively and now will gradually step up his work with Tuesday’s and Friday’s being the harder work days. The Flat grass gallop doesn’t open at Lambourn until mid March so he is confined to the all weather for now but soon enough he’ll be working on the grass. Joe’s horses are in good form right now, he had another winner Friday and all plans are still in place for Pride to return at Kempton on March 27th.
No news from Hughie (who had a nice Grade 2 winner yesterday) with Surrey Gold, and Surrey Knight has had a good week of cantering last week despite some pretty horrendous weather. He finds Warren Hill a struggle, which considering his physical immaturity, is no surprise at all. He will continue to canter on the flat and luckily in Newmarket they are blessed with a variety of canters that will suit him perfectly.
So the zoom call last Thursday - George was really pleased with the progress of Surrey Mist and Surrey Princess. Both horses are following a similar daily routine which includes a warm up around the circular flat ring before a couple of gallops up the Robins Farm hill. He’s bullish on both, they are showing up well at home but there’s no doubt he wasn’t expecting Surrey Princess to run so bad on her debut so whilst he says to forget her 2 year performance there is a little apprehension there.
On Surrey Mist (race horse shares available!) there is every indication that he’s an early precocious colt that he would expect to make his debut in April. That’s not set in stone because between now and then certain things can change, the most likely being that Mist has a growth spurt, which would put him back a month or so. As with all of our trainers, George doesn’t push horses on their first start, he’s keen for Mist to come back having enjoyed the experience which will then set him up nicely for the season ahead. Mist looks to be a 6 furlong horse and when he was pushed for a stretched target, he said one of the 2 year old races at Royal Ascot would be the aim - every horse racing syndicates dream!
George was very keen to put a line through Surrey Princess’ 2 year old career, he’s never had a horse bolt and miss their debut, and then her actual debut was too bad to be true. With hindsight he wished he had kept her waiting until her 3 year career and will now treat her first race back as if it was her debut again. He thinks she’s likely to be a mile to 10 furlongs horse and will return to the track on the turf in April. He didn’t think fillies only races at the start of her career were the right type of races, he didn’t want to pigeonhole her despite the fact that these could be considered (at the lower level) weaker races.
Surrey Mist is French bred and therefore benefits from added French premium payouts if he wins or places in France. George is very keen to race overseas and pointed out that once he had a runner in Deauville and one at the same time in Wolves, the runner from France got back home first! In regard to travelling overseas post Brexit he did think the first few months of the year would be difficult as both sides struggle with new admin rules but he feels that racehorses will be treated the same as other livestock and the process will be as simple as before. There may be an additional small cost but when taking into account the fact that French prize money is so much better than the UK it’s still worth pursuing overseas travel. When asked about the prize money in the UK he said it’s simple – we need a better run, highly successful tote style system similar to France, HK, Australia etc where money is returned to racing.
George was asked, in lockdown, how the staff were keeping motivated, is it simply their love of horses, or do they feel that the lack of normality in racing terms is a challenge. For his staff their daily life hasn’t really changed apart from going racing, which for most was a small part of the job, so George felt that actually they were feeling good to be in their bubble as he had around 12 staff on a daily basis and they get on very well together whereas the rest of us haven’t seen too many people outside of our 4 walls.
On being asked that given the varied racecourses he had run horses in the past - are there any courses where he would not run a horse, or not return for any reason? George felt some courses were just luckier for him than others, especially Lingfield where he has had plenty of success. loved Goodwood, and has enjoyed many great courses overseas especially Veliefendi Race Course just outside Istanbul and Le Lion d’Angers, a dual purpose track outside of Nantes, fun, rustic, excellent restaurants and an unpretentious hotel!
Asked on his other horses, he was very keen on Passionova, a £75k Bated Breath filly who won second time out by 5 lengths last week at Lingfield, Thanks to George for his time and we look forward to catching up with Nicky this week.
It’s turning warmer, lockdown will hopefully be eased soon and a return to racecourses is on the horizon!