1st March Update

The syndicate owners may have digested our email to them on Friday re the rising costs in horse racing – which as we know isn’t covered by rising prize money, The past week, horse racing social media has been dominated by a video from Basher Watts, a younger syndicate owner, who publicises racing on various channels and appeals to younger fans. Some of his stuff is good, other bits not so, but I thought it was worth sharing this post on X regarding the cost of having a racehorse in training. In this clip he talks about a 2-year filly, Oh So Perfect, for the 2025 year – she made her debut in July of last year and ran 6 times. The total cost was £47 328 but that included VAT which is reclaimable – so in reality it was £37,862. There wasn’t an injury so no big vet fills, as well as no additional invoices that we get such as from Weatherbys, website/IT maintenance, the accountants etc plus costs that we incur from going racing and attending the sales, an example of this is that we vet each horse we look to buy, there are a lot that fail the vet or bidding takes the horse out of our budget, but the vetting still has to be paid.   

The video has been picked up by serval news outlets and podcasts, the debate has provided a lot of differing reactions, especially for a horse who was rated in the low 50s, (it costs the same to train a good horse or a poor performing horse), anyhow, here is the link, you can come to you own thoughts and conclusions.          

https://x.com/basherwatts/status/2026071312246911458?s=46&t=l6YRzwWRsLlXi7Z4i5DxoQ 

We don’t have much in the way of horse updates this week, it’s as we were from last week’s newsletter. Spring is in the air and so we hope to have two NH horses running this month, and maybe details of an additional NH to be added to the stable. Then next month the debut of Surrey Moon and a sort of debut (we will draw a line through last years ‘run’ at Newbury) of Surrey King. We have an owners visit to see King before that, Cheltenham to enjoy/endure, Surrey Bolt returning to Tom’s, and Surrey Etoile having his first major check-up.  

Before all that – a quiet week ahead!  

Possible races and events.                         

March
Saturday 14th – Surrey Lord, Surrey Quest – Kempton
Saturday 21st – Owners visit to see Surrey King
May
Wednesday 20th – Surrey Racing Golf Day – Silvermere GC
July
Sunday 5th – Surrey King - Hamburg