June 2nd Update
The potentially exciting week didn’t really start with a bang with another poor performance from Surrey Noir who trailed in a disappointing 7th at Yarmouth. Noir broke well and from an outside gate was once again left stranded on the outside (that’s three consecutive races). As a result, he travelled a little too freely early in the race and gave up when the others quickened. Despite the three poor runs Charlie has reiterated that he is a horse with talent and is working really well at home.
Yesterday Surrey Shadow was our 200th runner! 14 of us travelled with excitement to see whether he could back up his debut run and I think it’s fair to say he did with an improved performance to finish 4th in a very hot novice, beating two horses whose combined cost was over €3m and only finishing a length from a horse rated 102. Shadow would have also learnt plenty as Danny Muscutt took him into the pack from a wide draw and educated him to run through gaps. The plan for him now would be to find a lower grade novice to get a win under his belt and then see what the handicapper does.
Today we had Surrey Belle competing at Nottingham, which was gloriously bathed in sunshine. Belle wore a hood and a tongue tie to help her settle better and it worked pretty well today. Rob Hornby gave her an excellent ride setting the fractions from the front but she didn’t respond when two went past her until it was too late, a similar run to Sandown last year and although she ran on to finish a credible 3rd. Rob said afterwards that the hood, although it helps her settle, probably dulls her senses so with the tongue tie working we feel we can discard the hood next time she races which should be at the end of the month. It was certainly an improvement by Belle and gives us grounds for optimism but sadly not the win we were hoping for. Unfortunately for some reason Rob Hornby had a brain fade and forgot to weigh in costing the syndicate owners 3rd place prize money and costing him a 7 day ban which means he misses the whole of Royal Ascot.
Provisional declarations can now be tracked live before 10:00 every morning on the fixtures page of the BHA website. This development, which has been successfully tested over recent months, improves transparency for all customers at the 48-hour declaration stage, with everyone able to see declarations as they are made, as well as the list of provisional runners and riders for each race ahead of official publication. It is important to note that declarations are not official until they have been formally checked and published after 10:00 on the day of declarations; subsequent changes, including to race times and the final fields, may still occur prior to this point. https://www.britishhorseracing.com/racing/fixtures/upcoming/