May 31st Update

It’s always a pleasure to welcome new owners to Surrey Racing, and this week we were delighted to see Richard purchase the final remaining share in Surrey Bolt. A big welcome to him. We’ve also recently met new owners Sue and Michael, as well as Paul B, which means we now have quite a collection of owners sharing the same first names. With what was clearly too much time on my hands, I turned to the ONS for a statistical sense check. The ONS only publishes the most common names at 10-year intervals, so I settled on 1964. The top 10 boys’ names that year were David, Paul, Andrew, Mark, John, Michael, Stephen, Ian, Robert and Richard, so perhaps the abundance of familiar names among our owners should come as no surprise!

With several new owners joining us, we’ll shortly be removing former owners from the distribution list and WhatsApp groups. As always, this newsletter is published on the website every Sunday, and if you ever decide to get involved again, you know where to find us.

We were hoping to see Surrey King run at Kempton last Wednesday, but unfortunately, after reportedly putting in an excellent piece of work, he was found to be slightly lame. Initially it appeared to be a jarred shoulder, but following a veterinary examination the issue is thought to lie within a knee. X-rays have so far revealed very little beyond some mild darkening. Occasionally, more significant issues such as a hairline fracture can take a week or so to become visible, so he will undergo another set of x-rays in 7–10 days’ time, which should give us a clearer picture. For now, King will need a period of rest and is unlikely to run during June. Sadly, that also brings an end to any hopes of a German Derby bid this year. We are currently looking into the race’s declaration rules, as in the UK entry fees are typically refunded if a horse is declared but subsequently balloted out. For the time being, we’ll keep the entry in place until we determine the most cost-effective way to withdraw if necessary.