26th October update

A very busy week just gone, and another busy one to follow, although unfortunately things haven’t gone quite to plan this week for varying reasons. 

It started in disappointing fashion last Tuesday when Surrey Shadow lined up at Yarmouth. It was clear from the start that he wasn’t enjoying the race, which was his final chance to shine before the sales, and he trailed home in last place. Shadow was fine the following morning and nothing physically has come to light to explain his poor run. He’ll head to the HIT sale tomorrow.

Also heading to the sale on Wednesday is Surrey Fire who has performed with some credit recently although the worry is that the state of his legs (which haven’t stopped him running) will put off buyers. It’s hard to come up with a valuation, but we wouldn’t be able to buy a horse like him for less than £20k so hopefully he’ll fetch more than that.  

Two days ago, we had the debut of Surrey King, the first of our 2-year-olds to make the track. He has been performing well at home although we know the best is to come next season as a three-year-old. This race has thrown up some very useful horses in the past; this year’s race was no different as King was up against some very well-bred horses. King looked great in the parade ring, a really striking horse who seemed 2 hands bigger than the rest although he does need time to fill that huge frame. Jockey Oisin Orr said that King was tripping over himself on the sticky ground on the way to the start so maybe that didn’t help his mood, but his first day at school didn’t go the way we expected. King behaved like a tempestuous teenager, being extremely obstinate in entering the stalls, and being the same by planting his front feet as the gates opened, losing several lengths on the rest of the field and always struggling from then. Surrey King continued misbehaving afterwards, the stable staff struggled to load him on to the horsebox but eventually he made it home. He lost 17 kg during the race so it will take him a while to get over the experience. Interestingly though, King recorded the fastest speed in the race, quite a bit quicker (0.43 second) than the next quickest, and recorded the longest stride length so the basics are there, and we are still confident he’ll be a talented 3-year-old. 

Yesterday it was Surrey Quest’s turn at Cheltenham in a hot three-mile hurdle. Quest again hurdled well but stats showed he was the slowest of any horse to enter the jump, which shows a possible continued lack of confidence in his jumping and therefore as a result lost more ground over jumps than all but 2 other finishers. Quest, like Surrey King, did hit the fastest speed recorded of any horse in the race, but couldn’t maintain the relentless gallop on the drying ground and struggled further from home than we expected.  He was fine this morning but will be medically checked out during the week to see if there is anything untoward. We have a bit of a conundrum with Quest as he hurdles better than he jumps, but he’s more effective over longer distances.

We have had a very good response to Surrey Bolt who has settled in at Neil Callan’s for some R&R following the sale, although Neil did say he had some feistiness about him as he’d already been nipped! We only have 15% left to sell which we will now advertise externally.   

Surrey Moon will do some faster work in the next couple of weeks, and we still hope to see him racing (on the all-weather) before the year is out, while Surrey Etoile is slowly coming back to full training.   

Sea Presenting is on course for her seasonal return at Uttoxeter in a few weeks’ time (15th).     

Next to run is Surrey Lord who makes the long journey to Ffos Las on Tuesday for the 2.28 race, a class 5 (0-100) handicap hurdle over 2 miles with Kevin Brogan in the saddle. Lord has been working well at Lambourn this past week, and we wouldn’t agree to send a horse that far if we didn’t feel there was a chance to be competitive.   

Good luck to Surrey Lord and connections on Tuesday, and here’s hoping that both Surrey Shadow and Surrey Fire go for a nice price to a good home.   

Possible races and events.                        

October
Monday 27th Tattersalls HIT Sale – Surrey Shadow Lot 267
Tuesday 28th Surrey Lord – Ffos Las – 2.28pm
Wednesday 29th Tattersalls HIT Sale – Surrey Fire Lot 901
November
Saturday 15th – Sea Presenting – Uttoxeter