July 6th Update
Surrey Fire was our sole performer this week, running in a competitive handicap over 2 miles at a hot Chelmsford, which did make the track tough and slow. Fire ran to his ability finishing 5th of the 10 runners, 7 lengths of the 91rated winner, although the Racing Post judged it to be 7 pounds worse than his last performance there a month ago. Jockey Tom Marquand was very eloquent with his feedback, saying that Fire was flat out for the whole relentless gallop and just couldn’t stay with the front two. He felt Fire would be better on good ground on the turf, distance not an issue. Fire may be dropped a pound or two which could see him in the easier company of 0-75 rated races but the challenge in this weather is finding a race on a galloping track which isn’t firm, and not so competitive that he has a chance to get back to winning ways. He’ll be ready to race again in about 3-4 weeks’ time.
Surrey Shadow has returned to the gallops which is great to see. He’s looking well, very fresh and has enjoyed his mini break and so if the ground softens, he’ll be back out at the end of July/early August.
Surrey Quest, Sea Presenting and Surrey Lord are close to returning from the paddocks and they will embark on a few weeks of road walking as an easy introduction to building up their fitness and tightening muscles. The more serious stuff will then begin early August, so they are ready to return to racing at the end of September.
Surrey Moon should be on the track before that, hopefully he’s ready to race in August although Tom won’t risk his debut on anything firmer than good ground so a little bit of patience may be needed.
Surrey King and Surrey Etoile will be racing later in the year.
Another German Derby goes by without a UK winner but Convergent was the closest for years going down by a short head to Hochkönig, who was ridden by Nina Baltromei. Frau Baltromei made history by becoming the first woman and also the first apprentice to win the Derby, only her 50th career winner! Unfortunately, Tim’s horse suffered a fatal injury, the lows of racing so stark after the excitement of taking part in a European classic for him and his team.
We are still looking at buying the next horses, the last breeze up sale passed in France this week, the yearling sales begin in August. The intention is to buy at least one horse to go into training with Tom Clover in Newmarket and at some point, we will reach out to see who would be interested in taking a share.
A slim newsletter and if there isn’t any new news then we’ll skip next Sunday’s edition.
Enjoy the week