Wow !! Weekly Update
Where to start!
A quite superb 2 days of races. It all started on Thursday with Surrey Princess, of whom the syndicate owners were pretty concerned about if we have to be honest following her first non event debut. When the odds drifted to 200-1 we weren’t sure what to expect at Salisbury. The ground was tacky, and described by jockeys as "very hard work" and "extremely tiring". Princess was very relaxed to saddle although she got on her toes once in the paddock, but only did a couple of laps before being walked to the start. At the start, she wandered around like an old handicapper as plenty played up. On entering the stalls on the first occasion, she did think about putting her head down but Shane Kelly swiftly corrected her, and all was well. She is the type of filly who will always keep you on your toes - she is cute and canny for sure but Shane said that once he had stopped her from going down, she was not going to do it again. After the shenanigans of loose horses headed everywhere, the loaded runners were backed out of the stalls. When asked to load again, Princess walked straight in.
Shane Kelly debriefs at Salisbury
Shane reported that they set a decent gallop in front, and for a stride or three we looked to have a real chance of leading all the way. It was not to be, and SP dropped back into 4th through the final furlong. She had a good blow, but she is fit, and we suspect that it was the trip rather than fitness that got her beat. The RPR rating was 56 – much better than the 27 for her first run. The obvious call would be to drop back to a mile next time, especially if there is juice in the ground. She was 100% in every way the following morning and we look to go again over shorter in about three weeks time. Over time the aids (hood, walked to start) used to settle her will hopefully be withdrawn.
On to Friday and horse racing owners headed North and West, to two fantastic racecourses in York and Newbury and how we were all rewarded! For those of us in York we met up with a confident Joe, a very relaxed Surrey Pride, and the cameras relaying our every move (especially Gerry’s Dad Dancing) live to the Nation!
What a fantastic gutsy, battling performance from Pride and The Doyler in a really competitive handicap. Pride ate and trotted up the following day, although he’s a bit sore in his front legs but Joe will make sure he’s managed medically now he’s going to mixing with the big boys. Going forward, there’s a number of options open to us. One would be the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot over 12 furlongs. We are not sure though that we want to step up to that distance with such a good performance over 10 furlongs. Possibly the better next race would be the Cazoo Handicap on Oaks Day at Epsom, only slightly less prize money but probably much less competitive. After that I think a realistic target would be the John Smiths Cup back at York on Saturday July 10th, a handicap over the same distance as yesterday. We’d probably need to go up the ratings a little though for these races, but we’d expect a 5 pound hike from yesterday.
Less than two hours later and all eyes were on Surrey Gold at Newbury, could the day get even better? What a performance – Gold and David Egan absolutely annihilated the opposition and turned the race into a procession, even the jockey was showboating! The 7 length victory certainly flattered those in behind. Gold was well the following morning, lets face it, he probably had the easiest run of any horse in the race! We’re not sure the Derby at Epsom is an option, he’s probably not good enough and Hughie thinks the downhill bend could ruin him. He needs a nice galloping track, but the ground is the most important factor, it needs to be soft. He’s had two close together runs so will now have a break and look to come back racing in about a month’s time. The target would be the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot on 17th June but he’d need to really get lucky to get on even if the handicapper ups him by 10 pounds. If we don’t get in we will look for other handicaps around that time. The stretched target, if all goes well, could be possibly a crack at the St Leger at Doncaster on Saturday September 11th.
Across the card doubles at major tracks are very rare for any owner, let alone a horse racing syndicate, and in what’s been a difficult year for a lot of us, it was a fantastic moment that needed celebrating.
Surrey Mist is working well but still filling out so the plan will be to have a racecourse gallop at the end of the month, and probably look to make his debut at the end of June. We’ve let George know that we are prepared to be patient and he shouldn’t rush Mist for our benefit. We have made an entry into the Arqana Sales Race which is held on Saturday October 2th in Paris as part of the Arc weekend. Sales races are generally less competitive with very decent prize money (E100 000k to the winner + French premiums) so we feel we should make an entry. We don’t know whether Mist will be good enough to warrant a trip over Longchamp but lets at least enter and see what happens.
We spoke to Nicky and he’s changed his mind about running Gran Luna (as he mentioned to the owners last week) and she’ll now go away for her summer holidays. The plan is to get black type for her when she returns next season. Surrey Quest did a great piece of work yesterday, he will be worked again next Saturday and then run the week after. Nicky has also started schooling Quest in preparation for next season.
No news on Surrey Knight this week but we have the visit to Newmarket to look forward to next Saturday. For those that are coming we will see you at Charlie’s at 8.30 - shares are still available, do get in touch.
8.30 – Charlies Fellowes Yard - https://charliefellowesracing.co.uk/
10.45 – National Stud Tour https://www.nationalstud.co.uk/
12.30 – Rosery Hotel - http://roseryhotel.co.uk/
Entries and Other Possible Plans/Events 2021
May
Saturday 22nd – Charlie Fellowes Stable Visit – Newmarket – National Stud – Lunch at the Rosery Hotel,
Thursday 27th – Surrey Racing Golf Day, Silvermere, Cobham, Surrey
June
Friday 4th – Surrey Pride -Epsom
Thursday 17th – Surrey Gold – Royal Ascot (King George V Handicap)
Friday 18th – Surrey Pride – Royal Ascot (Duke of Edinburgh Handicap)
July
Saturday 10th – Surrey Pride – York (John Smiths Cup)
August
Saturday 14th – Surrey Gold – York (Melrose Handicap)
September
Saturday 11th – Surrey Gold – Doncaster (St Leger)
October
Saturday 2nd – Surrey Mist – Paris Longchamp (Arqana Sales Race)