Remembrance Sunday
Some upsetting news to start with, one of our long-time owners sadly passed away this week, Minty Clinch, a world-renowned journalist who was never shy to mince her words. Thankfully Minty got to appreciate Surrey Lord’s win at Ffos Las which cheered her up after she had suffered a broken hip. Unfortunately, she suffered a stroke and passed away a few days later. Her travel articles are worth reading especially her story about the Gaucho Derby – The worlds toughest horse race - which you can read on her website https://www.silvervixen.net/post/the-worlds-toughest-horserace . RIP Minty.
Surrey Lord was pinged 7 pounds by the handicapper following that win taking him to a new high rating of 106 which means he’ll have to be racing in 110 rated handicaps at a minimum. There are plenty of options towards the end of November, with the most likely between 21st and 26th at Chepstow, Kempton, Southwell, or Wetherby as we look for the best race with the right conditions for back-to-back wins.
We did think we could see the seasonal reappearance of Sea Presenting this week. She’s been off the racetrack since February, and we are patiently waiting to see how she will perform as an older, stronger horse but Toby feels he’d just like another week or so of work with her until she’s ready to run. She will be aimed at Lingfield on the 27th, a mare’s maiden hurdle over 2 miles 3.5 furlongs.
As you are aware, Surrey King played up before and after the race at Newbury, he didn’t enjoy his debut on the racecourse and so Hughie feels that we shouldn’t rush him back to racing, give him time to get over what was (for him and us!) a stressful first day at school and come back return to racing on the all-weather next March before the turf season commences in April. King was subject to a BHA enquiry which means he now must pass a stalls test, so on a day at the races coming up, he’ll have to be loaded in and then when the gates open, he’ll have to bounce out and hack round the course. With the turf season nearly over it’s likely to be a quiet meeting at Kempton, without too many spectators. It won’t be a bad thing to have him back in the horse box, enjoy a hack without stress and then travel back home without too much exertion.
We only have two shares left in Surrey Bolt, our New Bay colt. New Bay is one of those unique horses (another is the late Wootton Bassett) who have a big gulf in getting black type colts over fillies. New Bay has sired 32 (15.2%) male stakes horses and only 11 (5.9%) filly/mare stakes horses. That trend continues with stakes winners, with 16 male and 4 female, and again with Group winners, 14 v 1 – that one being the Safron Beach (Timeform rated 121). I’ve no idea why that would be, but I’m glad we have a colt!
Surrey Quest had a series of veterinary tests this week. He was scoped for breathing issues on Monday as well as having a thorough physical examination which, apart from some minor tenseness in his middle back. looked good and there was nothing that would adversely affect his performance. However, on Thursday he had a stomach scope, and this revealed some aggressive and angry looking ulcers, including some, unusually, in his lower stomach, which the vet thought would be painful and would most likely inhibit performance. Fortunately, the prognosis for gastric ulcers is generally good and he will be given the standard treatment of Gastrogard and Sucralfate although that means a quiet couple of weeks. Toby’s thinking is one more run over hurdles with options on December 6th at Chepstow or Sandown, so we can judge performance without introducing the additional variable of fences. After that and provided he ran well and schooled encouragingly over fences, Toby wouldn’t rule out another crack at the Mandarin at Newbury on 29th December.
No new news on Surrey Etoile and Surrey Moon, who, all being well, are both 10-12 weeks away from running.
Have a good week ahead
Possible races and events.
November
Friday 21st Surrey Lord – Chepstow
Monday 24th Surrey Lord – Kempton
Tuesday 25th Surrey Lord – Southwell
Thursday 26th Surrey Lord – Wetherby
Thursday 27th – Sea Presenting - Lingfield
December
Saturday 6th - Surrey Quest – Chepstow, Sandown
Monday 29th - Surrey Quest - Newbury.