Surrey Gold so close !
It’s been am absolutely manic week at Surrey Racing HQ with sales a plenty, 2 new NH horses, three runners and an offer for Surrey Mist! we don’t know where to start ! Also – we’ve just our 150th run ! It’s been an unbelievable 6 years to think back to when it very first started at Newbury, when Surrey Hope ran without any syndicate owners to the 150th run with Surrey Gold, in Goodwood’s winners room drinking champagne with Hughie and Alan King (he won the race without any owners present!) having had 34 wins and 31 places and sharing the day with 30 owners,
Surrey Princess was the first of our runners this week on Thursday at Chelmsford but things didn’t quite go according to plan. It was quite obvious to anyone watching the race that there was something wrong with Princess and as a result, George called in the vet and unfortunately her scope showed that she had bled during the race. This would certainly explain why she stopped so abruptly. The plan now is to treat her for the bleeding and then in about 3 weeks time give her a proper gallop at Kempton. If she shows no sign of bleeding there is absolutely no reason why she can’t have at least one more run before we look to sell her in the July sale. Trevor was absolutely delighted with the way she was travelling around the home bend and really did think that he had the race won as the gap opened up. However, it was not to be and the priority now is to make sure the horse is treated properly and she fully recovers.
We had two runners at a very glorious Goodwood yesterday, one being Surrey Charm making her debut with plenty of her new owners present. That first race is so exciting as it’s where dreams are kept or lost and we were all full of anticipation for the run. Charm isn’t the biggest filly around but she’s pretty compact so there was no reason not to give her an outing on the track, George’s first two year old of the year. It wasn’t the worse debut – although we were hoping for a better finish than 8th of 10 but she wasn’t fazed by the day out and ran on at the end with Trevor suggesting a step up to 7 furlongs next. She took the race well and was in good spirits this morning. There’s a decent fillies novice at Newbury on June 21st which could be the ideal next race.
3 races later it was the time for Surrey Gold’s seasonal reappearance and our 150th run. What a great run he gave us, although unfortunately it was our 2nd week running for a 2nd place in a big weekend handicap. Sean Levey rode a great patient race but we were edged out by a horse who had only run a month ago whereas Gold hadn’t run for 225 days, it was just that lack of match fitness that saw us go down by a neck.
Next up is Royal Ascot in the Copper Horse but we will have to get very lucky with the entries (and the weather) to make the final field. We’ve also made am entry into the Northumberland Plate or more likely the Vase later in June if Ascot doesn’t work out.
Surrey Mist has his date with Royal Ascot but we were surprised to receive a substantial offer for him from Hong Kong this week which resulted in a lot of head v heart debating from his owners. The offer is too good to turn down but we’d love to have one final crack at the Royal meeting so negotiations are ongoing and actually the buyers have now gone a bit quiet on us. Unfortunately the best time to sell a horse is when you least want to!
This week we bought two NH horses that will go into training with Toby Lawes and Billy Aprahamian – details on the website but we are delighted to welcome Surrey Lord and Surrey Fortune to our stable.
No new news on Surrey Quest or Gran Luna. Surrey Knight has been gelded and now recovering from that. We are trying to arrange for him to go into a rehabilitation centre as standing idle in a field isn’t really the best recovery plan for him so we’re hoping to send him Culworth Grounds https://www.culworthgrounds.co.uk/ once he’s ready to leave Charlie’s.
Surrey Noir continues to canter away nicely and looks a picture. He has been kept off Warren Hill for the last month, but the plan is for him to start doing more on Warren Hill this week. He is progressing just as Charlie hoped he would and that is also the same of Surrey Belle who keeps chipping away without too much change in her routine.
We probably have a three week wait until our next runner but this week we have the 3rd Surrey Racing Golf Day and what a stellar entry list we have! We’re looking forward to a decent sunny day, with plenty of laughs and the odd liquid refreshment! If anyone not playing wants to come along to Silvermere for a catch up we should be finished playing at 3 pm – come and grill the trainers, join us for a cold one and the prize giving!