17th September Update
The racehorse owners had a glorious afternoon at Toby’s Open Day this week, as part of National Racehorse Week, which was very well attended by over 150 people including syndicate owners from Surrey Racing, other owners in the yard and the general public. There was a saddling demo, a Q &A from the vet, a chat about the ROR (Retaining of Racehorses) scheme with a former horse of the yard showing off his new dressage skills, a Surrey Racing Trophy Stand, plus a parade of the horses including Surrey Quest and Surrey Lord, as well as new resident, 12 years old and still fantastic looking, Bristol De Mai, who whilst retired from racing, loves being part of the yard especially as a lead horse for the younger stars in waiting.
Surrey Quest and Surrey Lord looking the part !
Our two there both looked really well in the September sun and drew some nice words from Toby. Surrey Quest has settled in without a hitch, he’s very fit looking, actually he probably could do with a little more condition, but he’s eating everything that is given to him so we cant ask for more than that. He gets turned out every day as well to enjoy the paddock which he didn’t get previously. He’s been checked out by the vet who can’t find any fault with him, his breathing his good, but as we are aware, it’s really only when he starts jumping that we’ll know he’s totally sound again. The plan is to build his confidence for a predominantly chasing season and, with no hiccups, we’d expect him to be racing from the middle of October.
Surrey Lord is a changed horse this year, still a bit of a playboy but maturing into a magnificent looking horse. He has grown up over the summer and his work on the gallops has been pretty good, although having said that he still managed to throw Harry Bannister the other day! We were sharing a glass of fizz with Harry and Kevin Brogan at the event, Kevin is still the only rider to stay aboard Lord and is fairly smug about that! Lord is on course for a bumper debut late October/early November before probably embarking on a novice hurdling campaign. Harry still remembers our very first ever runner, he was a conditional claiming 3 pounds and piloted our Warren Greatrex trained Potters Approach to a second place at Sandown back in 2016!
Talking of Sandown, we are back there for our 181st race on Wednesday with Surrey Charm in the last race on the card, a class 5 0-70 fillies only handicap over 10 furlongs with Hollie Doyle booked to ride, her 6th for Surrey Racing and hopefully her best! Charm worked well this past week and is ready to run again and should appreciate Sandown’s stiff finish with her coming off the pace. With rain in the air we wouldn’t want the ground too soft so we will keep a close eye on the weather (it’s been fairly light here today) and hope Sandown have stopped watering the course! We also expect her half brother Stromberg to run in next Saturday’s Group 2 Beresford Stakes at the Curragh so fingers crossed her value can be enhanced by both this week !
Surrey Belle is well and Hughie has two potential races in mind, at Southwell on September 28th or Chester on the 30th so as long as there are no unforeseen issues then she will be running next week, whilst Surrey Fire is coming along nicely. He’ll need at least a couple of races to get him to focus, all going well we are about a month away from his debut.
Surrey Mist has now moved out of Kevin’s yard to continue his rehab where he’s being turned out daily into a bigger paddock but still having ice treatment every evening, his way of life won’t change for a few months. Surrey Force was back doing faster work this week but unfortunately (again) afterwards there was heat in his legs so he’s had to be put back on the easy list. Every time Kevin presses on with him there seems to be thickening around his tendons, although Kevin doesn’t seem unduly worried (scans haven’t revealed any issues, just a sign of a physical immaturity). However, he’s probably 50-50 on whether he will run as a two year old, a very similar situation to Surrey Shadow where Tom has already taken the decision to plan for April. All three of our two year olds were bought with their three year old career in mind and whilst frustrating we’d rather the trainers take a slightly more cautious approach to them while they develop.
Surrey Fortune has been experiencing Billy’s new deep sand gallop this week after that work was finally completed. That’s going to be very beneficial to building up his core strength over the next 6-8 weeks before his racecourse debut.
Surrey Noir was hit hard by the handicapper this week, copping a hefty 7 pound rise for his facile win at Kempton. His new rating is a career high 75 which we still think is a workable mark. He’s just had his flu jab so has had an easy week and will get back going again soon. We did think 6 furlongs on the turf would suit him but options are very limited so he’ll run again at Kempton on October 4th over 7 furlongs. As a course and distance winner, we are comfortable that there’s at least two factors in his favour.
Finally, some great news re Surrey Knight. Racehorse Owner’s James and Lizzy have a friend, Tamsin, who will give Knight a loving home in Lewes where he will be kept occupied with hacking around the Sussex countryside and taking part in some light dressage. He’s such a good mannered horse that this partnership will suit both Tamsin and Surrey Knight so a big thank you to James for sorting and super to know that Knight will have a fulfilled post racing life.
We will hopefully see a few of the horse owners at Sandown on Wednesday as the races continue to come thick and fast.
Good Luck to Surrey Charm, her syndicate owners and all those connected with her.
Possible races and events
2023
September
Wednesday 20th – Surrey Charm – Sandown
Thursday 28th – Surrey Belle – Southwell
Saturday 30th – Surrey Belle - Chester
October
Wednesday 4th – Surrey Noir - Kempton
Saturday 7th – Toby Lawes Owners Morning
Monday 16th – Day 1 of the Arqana Yearling Sale