Weekly Update - 24th Oct
No runners this week, but we had a zoom call with Charlie and the Surrey Knight horse syndicate owners, we bought a new horse (https://www.surreyracing.co.uk/available-shares) our first ever sprinter, we welcomed yet more owners, welcome Steve, Will. Chris, Alan and Mic, Chris and Donna, and today a few of us had a very pleasant lunch with the racehorse owners at George Bakers, Ma Baker does cook a wonderful roast beef!
Charlie really did want to run Surrey Knight as a 2 year old, and had some October dates penciled in for him especially as it’s a huge advantage for a horse to learn from that raceday experience, it holds them in good stead for their 3 year old career. He said that Surrey Knight had done a couple of really impressive pieces of work, especially more so because of his size and immaturity, however Charlie noticed that when they trotted up last week his action had deteriorated, it became more choppy, which is a sign that his size and frame wasn’t coping with the extra hard push which all horses have to go through before raceday.
Charlie said to carry on really does risk a bigger injury and months on the sidelines so he wants to carry on trotting Knight and then pick up his work from January, with the aim (he already has the race in mind!!) to race him in a maiden over 1m 2f at Doncaster’s early season opener on the 26th March when the ground is still generally soft. He thinks Knight would prefer some cut in the ground so good ground and softer will be what he runs on.
The reason Charlie wants to keep trotting Knight is that it keeps the skeleton strong, and if he was to stop, Knight would get very fat and then would need to be pushed even harder when he returns. Charlie has the German Derby very much in his thoughts. He did at one stage think about having Knight gelded, with him not racing this would be a good time, but the German Derby is not open to geldings so he changed his mind on that. It’s not that Knight is coltish, but he’s very protective of his box, and Charlie wouldn’t put a less experienced member of staff in there with him, so it was more a safety issue.
Lastly – Charlie reiterated he has an open house policy for Surrey Racing owners – please arrange with Steve and myself, but with enough notice you’ll be guaranteed a bacon roll and coffee whenever you wish to visit! We all agreed, the horses welfare comes first so we will be patient and wait until the end of March and sort those cheap flights to Hamburg in July!
We lucked out at the sales in France this week when we bought our first ever sprinter, who we are going to call Surrey Noir. He has already been named, Mr Black, so we need to get permission from the French breeder to change that.
He’s a Dream Ahead colt out of a very hardy mare who won twice and was placed 17 times in her 30 runs. She has had two runners (from her 6 foals) and one (the Black Album) has already won a Group 3. He’ll go into training with Charlie some time after the yearling parade in 2 weeks time. He’s been bought for a solid two year old career, hopefully The Coventry at Royal Ascot.
For a video of him see https://www.arqana.com/lots/october_yearling_sale/282/87021
We have been amazed at the prices at the sales this season, it’s really been incredible, I think mainly because of the overseas buyers who are buying here, and then sending the horses to Australia, America and HK where the prize money is so much better. On day 1 in France where Anthony Stroud bought Surrey Noir, turnover from 180 horses sold reached €16,017,000, with the average of €88,983 being up by 53% on last year and comparing favourably to the 2019 figure of €81,362. The median of €65,000 was up from €43,000 12 months ago. Demand was strong for the stock of Wootton Bassett, who had 14 yearlings sold during the opening session for an average of €200,857. Anthony and Matt were the biggest buyers, signing for 14 yearlings for €2,315,000, including two by Wootton Bassett for Alison Swinburn, the owner of Audarya.
Surrey Princess was lowered to 57 by the handicapper this week – she’s very well and she will run in the fist race at Kempton on Monday week (November 1st)
Surrey Mist is well and recovering from his gelding. He’s actually been a very good patient and a lot calmer overall. George will see how he is in the next few weeks with potentially looking at starting him going again at the end of November, early December with a view to having him back on the track February/March time. Potentially on the turf in France but plenty of water to pass under the bridge before then.
For those who didn’t see Nicky Henderson’s Stable Tour piece in the Racing Post this week, Gran Luna, “she’s lovely. Things went wrong last season but she ended it by winning at Chepstow and has considerable talent. She can still go a long way over hurdles but is big enough for fences” and on Surrey Quest “ he was second at Warwick to Russian Ruler, a horse we think a huge amount of. He’s grown and should mature into a terrific novice hurdler”
Incidentally he said of Russian Ruler “ we like him a lot and he beat another of ours – Surrey Quest – on his debut and im sure the form is solid. He’s a fantastic individual set for a fruitful time over hurdles”
Have a good week ahead
Entries and Other Possible Plans/Events 2021
November
Monday 1st – Surrey Princess - Kempton
Saturday 6th – Surrey Gold – Doncaster (November Handicap)
Sunday 7th – Surrey Racing Yearling Parade 10.00 -12.00 @ Langshot Stud, Chobham, Surrey
2022
March
Saturday 26th – Surrey Knight – Doncaster (Maiden Stakes)
July
Sunday 10th – Surrey Knight (153rd German Derby, Hamburg)