Mother’s Day
Happy Mother’s Day to all those Mums out there - hoping you get spoilt!
It was nice to have two runners this week, which started on Friday with Surrey Lord at Fontwell. It’s fair to say we were very disappointed with his last run at Southwell, but he did return with a cough so maybe there was a mitigating factor, so we headed to Fontwell with hope that we would see an improved effort in what looked quite a competitive maiden. Lord looked fantastic beforehand and handled the prelims with aplomb, but it took a few fences for the jumping penny to drop as he continues to run ‘novicey’ . It was great to see Kevin back on board and he did give Lord a bit of a telling off at times but that was certainly needed as he buckled down to run on well to finish 8 lengths back in third in what the RPR rated 23 pounds better than Southwell. Three 3rds, a 4th and a 5th aren’t a bad return from his 5 runs to date, there’s better to come. Lord came out of the race well and now he’ll have an easy week. After that we’ll look at the weather and what opportunities are open to us (he will get a handicap mark on Tuesday, probably close to 105) before the season finishes, but if we get the right ground, he could still have 2 more outings.
Lois and Lord looking great in the sun.
Yesterday, we welcomed the start of the Flat season with Surrey Shadow in action at Doncaster, making his handicap debut in the Spring Mile. After Shadow’s win at Southwell, he had to carry a 5-pound penalty and that possibly was the difference as he tried to escape the bumping and boring to chase homes the leaders, eventually finishing a very credible 4th (of 22 runners) place only 1.5 lengths off the winner. Considering that was his handicap debut, against some very experienced older horses, it was a great performance and really bodes well for the season ahead. Hopefully, the handicapper will leave him off his current mark as he’s sure to go very close next time especially on ground that has a bit more cut that the drying out turf he had yesterday.
Post Race Pose
Amazingly we’ve only had one UK runner that hasn’t been placed this year (which was a 4th) so we are getting runs for our money, more winners though needed!
There’s no new news on the other horses; they are all well and continue to do their thing. April 12th is the next key date in the Surrey Racing calendar with potentially two decent Saturday races to look forward to as Surrey Quest has been entered into the Scottish National and Hughie is pondering Surrey Fire to make his seasonal reappearance at Newbury.
Possible races and events.
April
Saturday 12th – Surrey Quest - Ayr
Surrey Fire – Newbury
Saturday 26th Surrey Fire - Haydock
May
Tuesday 13th – Surrey Racing Golf Day, Silvermere Golf Club – 10.15 am