November 20th Update
A very warm welcome to James who joins as a new owner of Surrey Fire.
A later edition as we’ve just returned home from Uttoxeter where it was great to catch up with the NH owners for the first time on a racecourse since March – it’s been too long! Surrey Quest ran very well on his jumping debut and having been off the track for 200+ days, running against older and more experienced rivals. It did look like jockey Paul O’Brien had to work very hard to keep him going over the 2m 6f course and we did fear Quest would be tailed off but he rallied well and actually was the fastest finisher, a game 3rd which was our 68th win or place from only 160 runs. We will discuss with Nicky in the week but we felt that Quest needs further and probably a more testing track. Uttoxeter was certainly drying out and with less undulations Quest appeared not to handle the decent pace.
As well as the trip to Uttoxeter, Steve and I attended Ascot’s two day of racing where Surrey Racing was part of the ownership village. It was great to meet some of you who were there racing, Dawn, Tim and Chris as well as quite a few racegoers who had obviously done their research on us and our horses, we did get some very complimentary comments! We hope a few will come along to the open morning next week as we have encouraged them to ask the current owners questions about syndicates rather than listen to our sales pitch!!
Friday at Ascot, with only £1 admission, was a good day’s racing with a good atmosphere, whereas yesterday just showed how many issues racing has, awful fields, trainers not prepared to risk their good horses, £25 cheapest admission and £7.50 a pint! Uttoxeter today would only give us 8 badges to the Owners and Trainers lounge with a card that had under 64 declared entries. Courses have to do better but the ROA, BHA and RCA all need to play a stronger role.
The other interesting thing this week was Carini, who finished 4 lengths behind Surrey Mist in Deauville sold for E600k to Australia ! What a shame Mist’s x-rays aren’t quite good enough to Oz. He’s well though and enjoying a short break.
Surrey Noir has completed his final week of walking, he’ll be x-rayed this week and if all ok then will resume trotting this week. We saw Surrey Charm looking great last week, and a very powerful looking Surrey Force, who will be broken in this coming week. Both will stay at Langshot Stud until the new year. Next Sunday is a chance to get the low down on all of the new horses. We are now sold out of Surrey Fire and will run a waiting list in case anyone drops out before paying in the coming weeks.
Surrey Force’s price will increase on December 1st, and Surrey Fortune, who is really pleasing Billy, will see his price rise on January 1st.
Congrats to the Quest owners who share £1800 and we look forward to seeing those coming along next Sunday at Langshot Stud.
Possible races and events
November
Sunday 27th – Langshot Stud Open Day Visit 10.30 am
Wednesday 30th Tattersalls December Mare Sale – Gran Luna lot 2090
December
2023
January
Saturday 28th – Hughie Morrison Stable Visit
March
Saturday 18th – Surrey Mist – Prix Ebury – St Cloud
Saturday 25th – Surrey Lord – Newbury – Goffs Bumper