September 13th Update

Finally, a runner to enjoy and assess, although the day was tempered when we received the sad news that Surrey Etoile was found dead in the paddock that morning. 

It seems that he had a heart attack and died quite suddenly as he was found in the same spot as where he usually stands. Unfortunately, he’s had a rough time over the past 8 months, and we assume that has taken its toll. The information that we received from Tim after his bad injury was that he could be saved but (and hindsight is a wonderful thing) would we have been better not putting him through the stress and strain since that fateful morning in Chantilly?  

2-year-old Surrey Bolt made his debut on Tuesday at Goodwood. He’s hardly been on the grass gallops because of the lack of rain so he would have had a shock when he appeared on the Sussex track in driving rain and a howling wind! Surrey Bolt is a little ‘first foalish’ i.e. not the biggest horse, whose action would suit a faster surface, so we feared the worse after the 25mm of rain that fell that morning. We discussed with Tom whether he should be a pulled from the race, but Tom’s attitude was that he probably wouldn’t like the conditions but there’s only one way to really find out and that’s to race. However, Bolt hated the ground, but he endured it and despite (classic winning!) Saffie Osbourne going easy on him he still ran through the line, beating the only other debutant in the race and a £550k purchase, finishing 5th of 7, 11 lengths off the winner in what was a very competitive maiden. He earnt an RPR of 53 which was on the low side for a Surrey Racing debutant but the bottomless ground was a huge mitigating factor and there were certainly positives to take away. Surrey Bolt has come out of the race well and he’ll race again in about 3 weeks’ time, on the turf if the ground is good otherwise it will be on the all-weather, in distance from 7 to 9 furlongs.  

Surrey King got the all clear from the vet this week and he’ll be slowly built up for his next run which won’t probably happen before December which is a little later than we had anticipated but he did fracture a bone in his knee so we’ll have to be patience for a few extra weeks to make sure all is ok   Surrey Moon had his injection this week and we should hear within the next day or so whether that has worked and Jackie can start to work him harder. 

The NH horses are in a good shape with Surrey Lord now back joining Hillsyde Hope on the gallops. We hope to have a more detailed update about them next week. Toby has also scheduled an Open Day for all his owners on Saturday October 3rd, so two Saturdays in October a chance to see the yard and hear about the plans for the season ahead. 

Finally, we have been asked whether we are buying a new horse with the yearling sales season taking place. We aren’t really looking; we’ve had some rotten luck this year and we’d like to see how the 5 horses we have perform, so we have an eye on next Spring’s Breeze Up sale. It was interesting to see the Tattersalls Somerville sale results, as consignors are obviously looking for better prices as 71 lots (from 269) went unsold or were withdrawn. The average and median prices dropped 8% as the trend below the very top sales continues to decline. We will see if that has a knock-on effect into the main sale in October as if it is the case then the pin hookers will be looking for less at the breeze up sale.      

Possible races and events.                         

October

Saturday 3rd Toby Lawes Open Day – 10.15
Saturday 17th – NH Owners Morning @The Lawes’ in Lambourn (details tba).