April 21st Update
A slightly later newsletter than usual this week, and please note that next week’s update will be pushed back to Wednesday due to our holidays which have typically happened as soon as we have horses due to run, we’ve been waiting for a weekend like this for weeks!
Surrey Lord has been entered to run at Sandown’s NH finale meeting in the 5.15, a class 2 hurdle over 2.5 miles. Lord is in great shape and ready to go again but the race has attracted 30 entries and so we’ll need a few to come out for him to get a run in what looks a very competitive contest. Kevin Brogan is booked to ride.
Surrey King passed his stalls test at Newbury last Friday, which is excellent news. There had been real concern about the possibility of missing the season altogether, so this is a big step forward. He’s been entered for his seasonal debut at Leicester on Saturday in the 3.55—a Class 3 maiden over 10 furlongs. It’s another strong race, with entries from leading yards including Beckett, Varian, Gosden, Balding, Appleby and Haggas.
Godolphin have two entered: Act of Generosity, who cost 875,000gns and holds an Irish Derby entry, and King of Thebes, who fetched an eye-watering 1.5 million guineas. Salgados (300,000gns) also holds a Derby entry, while Superior Choice cost 1.1 million guineas. There are also some beautifully bred types in the field, including Shadwell’s Shayhana, who is closely related to Palace Pier. It’s always exciting to take on horses with such lofty price tags and expectations—so here’s hoping Surrey King can go and spoil a few plans.
We’ve had a great response for shares in Hillsyde Hope who could be sold out by the end of the week. Unfortunately, he’s still in Ireland as the owners won’t release him until he’s fully paid up which isn’t helpful from a syndicate’s point of view as we don’t have €55k sitting down the side of the sofa but we hope to get that sorted in time for him to be at Toby’s for the owners morning in May.
There is a box spare for him though as Surrey Quest has now joined up with Abby who is absolutely delighted to be reunited with her favourite horse. Abby sent this open letter to us this week, you can tell that ‘Questy’ is going to have such a great life outside of racing which is just fabulous news.
As you know we take welfare after racing extremely seriously so it’s great to hear how the horses are getting on and share those stories.
Good luck to the owners of Surrey Lord and Surrey King – hopefully, it’s going to be a Super Saturday – please take care of the trophies and media engagement!
Possible races and events.
April
Saturday 25th – Surrey Lord – Sandown 5.15
Surrey King - Leicester 3.55
May
Saturday 9th – Owners visit to Toby Lawes
Monday 11th Surrey Moon – Windsor
Saturday 16th – Owners visit to Tom Clovers
Wednesday 20th – Surrey Racing Golf Day – Silvermere GC
July
Sunday 5th – Surrey King - Hamburg