17th May Update

 It was a pleasure to welcome both the Surrey Moon and Surrey Bolt owners to Tom’s yesterday morning, and thankfully the weather played its part. Both horses enjoyed a gentle canter, with Bolt stretching out up Warren Hill and Moon working on the Town Gallop. 

Surrey Bolt continues to impress physically, developing into a strong, compact horse who is finding his work very straightforward. Following his earlier setback, he is now steadily building back up in his training and Tom is pleased with the progress he is making. Despite the interruption to his preparation, Tom remains confident we should still see him on the racecourse a couple of times this summer, likely beginning over 7 furlongs. 

Surrey Moon is a particularly athletic individual with an eye-catching, fluent stride. He continues to be something of a frustrating horse, however, as he has been working very well alongside horses with proven form and appears to be improving all the time. The challenge has been that whenever he gets close to race fitness, he either suffers a minor setback or produces a piece of work where he still feels weak. Tom’s view is that this is simply down to immaturity and that, with patience, he has every chance of developing into a very nice horse in time. His half-sister, All Moonshine was also a notably late developer as you are probably aware she did not make her debut until November of her three-year-old season but has since won three of her four starts and now holds an official rating of 87. We did earmark a race at Leicester next week, but, if by being patient we can replicate his sibling, then that would be the preferred option. Moon is likely to begin his career over a mile, although in time he shapes as though he could develop into a middle-distance horse over 12 furlongs. 

Surrey King has been slow to get over his recent excursions and Hughie is keen not to rush him back, however, he’s getting there now and could be running next week, with options at Windsor on 25th and Chepstow on the 29th.   

The next big event comes on Wednesday with the 2026 Surrey Racing Golf Day — a veterans’ handicap for colts and geldings (fillies are welcome, although none have declared this year). A field of 14 will go to post, including the familiar names of Tom Clover and Hughie Morrison, in what is usually a tightly contested affair. The question is whether the sole classy entrant, Kevin, can hold off several rivals who appear to have been expertly handicapping themselves in preparation for their tilt at the title. As ever, keep an eye out for the lurking improver the handicapper may have underestimated, there is always at least one! Equally, the course can expose those lacking stamina, and with trouble in running almost guaranteed, a little luck may prove just as important as raw ability over the closing stages.

Possible races and events.                         

May
Wednesday 20th – Surrey Racing Golf Day – Silvermere GC – 10.00 am for breakfast
Monday 25th – Surrey King – Windsor
Friday 29th – Surrey King - Chepstow
July
Sunday 5th – Surrey King - Hamburg