December 12th Update

How’s the Christmas shopping going - syndicate shares in horses still available!  

One runner this week (at Taunton) which ultimately turned out to be a little disappointing because we know Gran Luna has talent but unfortunately she also has bleeding issues. It’s not the first time we’ve expressed concern but we really do worry that it’s going to continue to hinder her performances. She looked absolutely fantastic beforehand, and deservedly won the ‘best turned out’ prize but she was also a bit fresh and so skipped the pre-parade ring, We actually thought she ran a bit green as well.  When the pace quickened she couldn’t go with the leaders and James Bowen just pushed her home. After the race she wasn’t tired at all, so obviously something is stopping her from trying. She’ll be scoped on Monday and then we’ll chat with Nicky to see what he thinks.  

Gran Luna - Best Turned Out!

We only have one more runner this year and that won’t be until Boxing Day as whilst Surrey Princess is 100% fit we would just like to make sure she’s absolutely spot on. We chatted with the owners this week about what we should do with her as none of us want to be paying training fees for a 55 rated horse. She’s well bred and does have residual value so she will be entered into the Tattersalls sales in February although that doesn’t mean we have to sell her.  

Surrey Quest is well but he has lost a fair bit of weight (must be the only one this time of the year) after his win at Leicester so Nicky is concentrating on him getting back to his fighting weight, and then he’ll be out racing again probably very early in January.    

Surrey Mist’s work is just starting to pick up – he could be racing as early as the end of January on the all weather here in the UK followed potentially by a turf run in France. Surrey Charm is super chilled, she really is laid back.  George is always very welcoming to syndicate owners so if you have a morning free go down and see the horses.

The same applies to Hughie and Charlie – they have an open door policy so feel free to organise a visit. Charlie has confirmed the 22nd of January so we hope to see a few of the Noir and Knight horesracing owners along for coffee and bacon rolls in Newmarket, get Charlie’s thoughts on the plans for the season ahead.      

Surrey Knight is hack cantering away very happily and is moving great. Charlie will continue to play around with him for the foreseeable future, but he couldn’t be happier with how he looks at the moment. Surrey Noir, as those on the WhatsApp chat will have seen, has settled into the yard perfectly and has started doing big figure of eights on the grass with the rest of the yearlings. He will get lots of good educational groundwork into him this month before he has an easy time over Christmas and New Year. Charlie said he is very athletic, a great mover and much more forward than Knight was. He does everything very willingly and Charlie see’s no reason why he won’t be running as a two year old.  

Surrey Gold is now having a winter break, and finally Surrey Belle has strengthened a lot in the past few weeks, and really filled out. Karen at Langshot Stud feels she will be running a lot earlier than we think so we are discussing with Hughie whether he should bring her over to his yard earlier than the targeted end of January. 

Finally - the implementation of Plan B will mean the introduction of mandatory Covid Certification to gain entry to racecourses in England where the overall attendance exceeds 4,000, bringing English racecourses in line with those in Scotland and Wales. From Wednesday 15 December, all racecourse attendees at fixtures in England that exceed the 4,000 threshold will be asked to provide on arrival at the venue either proof of full vaccination or a recent negative test. This will apply to all racecourse attendees, including participants, owners, officials, and spectators.   

Stay safe  

Entries and Other Possible Plans/Events 2021

December
Sunday 26th – Surrey Princess - Wolves
2022
January
Saturday 22nd – Charlie Fellowes stable visit for Noir and Knight owners
March
Saturday 26th – Surrey Knight – Doncaster (Maiden Stakes)
July
Sunday 3rd – Surrey Knight (153rd German Derby, Hamburg)
https://www.deutscher-galopp.de/gr/renntage/rennen.php?id=1330172&d=20220703&s=N