Weekly Update - 10th Jan
10 days already into the New Year with plenty of racing on tv to keep us occupied. Unfortunately no Surrey Racing right now, we’re still a fair few weeks until our first entry so as much as I can try to pad out this horse racing syndicate newsletter, it’s tough !
So with added plagiarism from George Baker, here goes!
The ground frozen solid. Hanging grey. Freezing fog. The trees in the distance standing barren and bleak against a leaden sky. The crunch of frost beneath our feet. Horses blowing "dragon's breath" over stable doors. Stable staff hurrying hither and thither with collars turned up against the bitter chill. Ice on the ponds and in the water troughs. Still. An eerie quiet. "Lockdown quiet". No distant rumble of traffic or planes or trains or automobiles. Too quiet. Not how it should be....
With not a glimmer of light in the sky, it is hard to look ahead to the uplands of spring and high summer. But we must. For by then the better times will be with us. Imagine how unutterably ghastly this winter of discontent would be if we did not have the ongoing roll-out of the game changing vaccines. We have three. Not one. And there is talk and hope of more. Which means that there is genuine and tangible light at the end of several tunnels. Cheltenham, The Guinness Village, great friends in high boxes - sadly, we will almost certainly need to wait another year before we party together beneath Cleeve Hill in that finest of all sporting amphitheatres. But by the time the best 3-year-old racehorses of their generation head to post at Newmarket for the 1000 and 2000 Guineas on the first Saturday of May, the ghastliness of these raw winter days will be behind us. The Derby and Royal Ascot will be on the horizon. And Glorious Goodwood will follow on their heels. And we will drink together on blazing afternoons, and laugh and party and dance and move further away from the troubled times that will by then be mostly behind us.
As ever, there will be bumps along the road. And we will have to adapt and react as we haul ourselves from the darkness of lockdown as blinking mice emerging from sacks of flour. There will be setbacks and pitfalls, and probably dread new "variants" with which to contend. But we will be a whole heap further down the line than we are on this frozen January morn. There are plenty who are struggling to cope with the loneliness and variables of the present dread scenario. And so do please make that call to friends and family who you fear might be vulnerable. It is easily done. And it is collective strength, spirit, will and support that is imperative at times of extreme stress and anxiety.
Apologies George!
Both Gran Luna and Surrey Quest are back working at Seven Barrows - Gran Luna has been cantering for over a fortnight now and is going well, although it’s a bit early in her work programme to notice any difference in her wind but Nicky is confident it will have done the trick. She looking great and her workload is increasing weekly. Surrey Quest has only just come in but Nicky said he’s looking good and as we hoped he’s pretty ‘sharp’. I’ll ask for some video footage this week so share with you.
Surrey Pride will probably come back into training next week, as we mentioned before, colts do get a bit too fat when out to grass so whilst the break has been good for him mentally but now it’s time for a slow return back to fitness. He won’t run until March though, quite possibly the 27th at Kempton where there’s a 0-105 handicap over 1m 3f, seems about the right timeframe.
Surrey Gold is ticking over, and doing just fine. He’ll continue like that for a few months to give him time to strengthen. We wont be in any rush to get him back racing but Hughie won’t let boredom set in, he’ll know when the time to right to run which more than likely will be in a 0-80 handicap over 1m 2f.
The two babies are doing really well, we’re very excited about both Surrey Mist and Surrey Knight and think they can both be fairly early types, especially unusual for a Le Havre colt. However, we’ve mentioned it before, it won’t really be until late February when Charlie and George get a real idea of how early they will be so patience with them. If you need to spend some money and have something to look forward to, race horse shares available in both!
Surrey Princess isn’t doing anything – she’s taking it really easy and the only thing to happen to her of any note is she had her flu jab last week!
Fingers crossed for the vaccine – hopefully a few of you are already at the front of the queue ?
Keep Kicking!