Happy Easter
Happy Easter
The main news this week is that Surrey Moon has been successfully gelded. He was getting very coltish (rearing up, snorting at other horses) and it was becoming a safety issue for those that were working around him. As well as having an impact on his training Tom was concerned that the conduct may get worse and become learnt behaviour, so the sooner the better. The operation went well, a clean cut, and he’ll be back trotting by the end of the week. His stable mate Surrey Shadow did a fast piece of work last Wednesday that pleased Tom so all good with him, the plan remains to race early May.
Surrey Quest suffered a facial injury in his fall at Ayr last week, which was x-rayed yesterday, thankfully there’s no fracture and just some minor impact abrasions so nothing that will impact on his work. For his next race Toby is looking at all options over chase and hurdles. As we mentioned last week, Uttoxeter or Punchestown are two, there is also a hurdle at Haydock on the 10th and a chase at Aintree on May 16th.
Surrey Lord still has the odd cough and is wearing a mask to try to open his airways. It’s possibly allergy related, and he hasn’t missed too much work but obviously we’d like him to have a clean bill of health. The target for him remains the race at Worcester on May 6th, however there is a nagging doubt that if it doesn’t clear by then that we may have to pull up stumps for this season to clear whatever issue he has and go again next September.
Surrey Etoile and Surrey King are well and will continue to canter away for the next few months. Both respective trainers want the horses to work hard enough so that they are not too fresh but without overdoing it and are still probably looking at Autumn debuts. We have a trip to Chantilly planned for the end of June, and after that we will organise another trip to Hughies where King should be much further forward.
Surrey Fire is also very well and ready to run. He’s been training from the front, and from behind, and every time he has been settling well. That will hopefully translate to the racecourse and if so then he’ll be campaigning over a minimum distance of 1 mile 4 and probably looking at racing over further. With doubts about the weather, Hughie feels we should open on the all-weather at Lingfield on Monday week (28th) in a 0-85 handicap over 12 furlongs. He’s a course winner there, he’s guaranteed a run, we don’t have to worry about the ground, and it will give us a chance to try hold up tactics to see whether he settles and then stays (entries Tuesday).
The first breeze up sale has been and gone. The Craven Sale showed a big rise in both the average (+15%) and the median (+25%) but that was distorted, as is the norm these days, at the top of the market. One horse bought by Godolphin for 1.4m Gns was from an old stallion (Acclamation) out of a mare who was no better than 60 rated and has produced 3 horses who were also no better than 60 rated. The top lot, a Havana Grey colt, didn’t have any black type in the breeding until the 4th dam. Those purchases defy logic but unfortunately set the trend throughout. We will look again at the next sale.
Enjoy the chocolate eggs
Possible races and events.
April
Monday 28th – Surrey Fire – Lingfield – 17.00
May
Saturday 3rd – Surrey Shadow – Newmarket
– Surrey Quest – Uttoxeter/Punchestown
Tuesday 6th - Surrey Lord - Worcester
Saturday 10th – Surrey Shadow – Ascot
Tuesday 13th – Surrey Racing Golf Day, Silvermere Golf Club – 10.15 am
June
Saturday 28th – Owners visit to Chantllly