5th October Update
It was great to welcome two of the NH horses back for their seasonal debuts today at Uttoxeter, it’s nice to have two sets of owners at one meeting, and also to be able to cheer on Toby’s other horses at the course, which in running looked to be undercooked which is understandable at this early stage in the season. Surrey Quest was first up on a return for hurdling and for 80% of the race looked by far the best horse racing until push came to shove and he got tired and ended up finishing a distant 5th. There were positives in the fact that he hurdled well but there’s probably more questions than answers. Surrey Lord was in the last of the day and seeing how Toby’s other 3 horses failed to see out their races. Kevin admitted afterwards that he probably rode a little defensively. Lord raced with a good attitude and although he finished 6th, he was only 6 lengths back from the winner. Both horses will come on for the run but for sure there is work to be done back at Henfold Stables, we live to fight another day.
Surrey Fire, who was dropped a pound to 78 after his last run, bounces straight back to racing with a visit to Wolves tomorrow evening where he lines up in the 7.30 race, a class 4 handicap over 12 furlongs with Harry Davies on board. It could be possibly his last race in Surrey Racing colours as he has a date with the Tattersalls horses in training sale at the end of the month and options are somewhat limited for him to race before then. Hopefully, he’ll give us a performance that increases his value.
Surrey Shadow also holds an entry into the sale. He passed his ECG test this week and so the BHA have given him the go ahead to resume racing. Yarmouth on the 21st looks the best option for him where we hope he can race without any excuse and show what he really is capable of.
The Tattersalls Book 1 sale starts on Tuesday and prices at the top end are expected to reach stratospheric levels. When we asked for expressions of wishes for a yearling, there was a common theme of comments from owners expressing frustration of paying a year’s training fees and not yet seeing their horse run. We share that frustration but if the likes of Surrey King or Surrey Moon were in a sale today, they would command a fee as lot higher than a year’s training fees so would owners prefer to pay a lot more to see their horse run earlier or pay less and be patient? It is a hypothetical question as we know that when Surrey Racing pay more for a horse, we struggle to sell shares, a case in point with Surrey King who we didn’t sell out of. Of course, we could visit the Horses in Training sale and spend £30k on am older horse but those horses tend to run at lower grade tracks like Hexham, Wolves, and Ffos Las. We would rather be patient and hopefully run at Ascot, Sandown, and York for example, we know the owners do because we only have one owner visiting Wolves tomorrow!
Incidentally, Surrey King’s half-sister is lot 181, the second lot to sell on day 2, this Wednesday. Potential buyers of lot 181 have been to Hughies to view Surrey King to see how he has developed to give them an idea of how this yearling could grow, and therefore it will be interesting to gauge how those visitors price his half-sister.
No update on the other horses this week, more on them next week.
Good luck to Fire and connections tomorrow at Wolves.
Possible races and events.
October
Monday 6th – Surrey Fire – Wolves – 7.30
Tuesday 21st – Surrey Shadow - Yarmouth
Friday 24th – Surrey King – Newbury
Monday 27th Tattersalls HIT Sale – Surrey Shadow Lot 267
Wednesday 29th Tattersalls HIT Sale – Surrey Fire Lot 901
Saturday 25th – Surrey Quest – Cheltenham
Wednesday 29th – Surrey King - Nottingham