Happy New Year !

We wish you all a very happy New Year and may all the racing gods shine on us in 2025! 

We are straight into racing in 2025 with 4 horses expected to run in January including at least one runner this week. Surrey Noir races in Deauville on Friday in a handicap over 1400m with the race time expected to be late afternoon. After the last two runs where we feel the jockeys could have done better, this will hopefully be 3rd time lucky and back into the winners’ enclosure.   

The next day we may see Surrey Quest running at either Warwick or Kempton. He was fine in himself after his mishap at Newbury, although a little stiff. Obviously, he only ran for half the race so Kevin is visiting to ride him tomorrow, we’ll discuss with Toby, look at entries and then make a call. Both races are live on ITV, the Warwick Classic at 3pm is a 100k Premier Handicap over 3m 5f and the Kempton (maybe more helpful as a confidence booster) race at 2.10 is a class 2 handicap over 3 miles. The usual ground caveats come into play as well, Warwick is covered in snow which should clear but temperatures at the end of the week won’t be helpful. 

Best wishes to both horses and connections, it would be great to get 2025 off to a winning start. 

2024 was a busy year for Surrey Racing, with a record 40 races, featuring 9 horses on the track—just one shy of our best year in 2019, when we had 10 horses. It was also our third-best year in terms of prize money, falling just short of £100k. Our win and place rate stood at a solid 47%. We have reassessed our approach to acquisitions and this year we’ve moved into a new direction by purchasing 4 horses independently. This fresh approach is exciting, and we eagerly anticipate seeing these new horses make their debut in the upcoming season. 

We’re thrilled to welcome 11 new owners this year and look forward to catching up with them at the racecourse. While the sale of three horses means we will inevitably say goodbye to a few owners, we hope you’ve enjoyed your time with Surrey Racing, and we would be happy to welcome you back anytime you wish to get involved again. Unfortunately, we lost Dawn after a long battle with illness. She was an incredible supporter of syndicates, having shares in over 40 horses, which provided her with strength throughout her struggles. Always full of opinions and never without her signature yellow and blue attire, she will be missed. We also celebrated a special achievement for one of our owners—Paul’s daughter, Ellie, winning Paralympic Gold in the Paris swimming pool. What an incredible accomplishment! Our thoughts are with those who have faced their own challenges this year, including illness and personal hardships. We wish everyone a much happier 2025. 

THE GOOD 

Surrey Quest has been the prize money flag bearer and how close was he to winning the Scottish Grand National, I still watch it back and can’t believe we lost by the barest of margins. The weekend we had in Glasgow/Ayr will live long in the memory, mixed emotions for sure, but it really is what syndicate racing is all about. Quest also gave us our first ever runner at Cheltenham, again performing admirably with an astonishing surge up the hill, few horses can do that from so far off the pace.  

Surrey Belle led the way with wins, a romp at Kempton contributing to one of Oisin Murphy’s winning rides on his way to the jockey’s title this year, and then a strong battling performance to finally break our Haydock hoodoo.  She was sold for a respectable 70k Gns and having witnessed her NH debut, she will be winning races for new connections. Surrey Noir gave us our third ever win in France with Vannes joining previous seasons Listed wins in Deauville and Clairefontaine. Surrey Fire flattered a little bit this year, we expected more, but he did put in a great performance at Lingfield, leading from pillar to post to break his maiden.

Surrey Shadow is still a maiden, but he was involved in some tight finishes and finished the year as our highest rated flat horse. Both Shadow and Fire will have benefit from time off as they both have had niggles which held them back last year. We hope they are our Royal Ascot horses in 2025!   

Surrey Lord finally made the racetrack after his owners had waited a patient two years and has performed admirably in his first 2 bumpers, next one the winning one? 

THE BAD

Injuries once again are the scourge of racing and are so frustrating. We have had to retire one of our greatest horses, Surrey Mist, who seemed to make a successful comeback from a year out in Hamilton’s Lanark Bell only to succumb to the same tendon issues.  Surrey Fortune never even made it to the racetrack and is currently relaxing at Toby’s. As always, it is our priority to make sure all our horses have loving homes after their racing careers have ended.    

It was disappointing that Surrey Charm didn’t find a buyer in the October sale. She was a real battler, a winner in 2023, and 2 places from her 3 runs last year, plus being a half-sister to black type Stromberg, we thought she would appeal to breeders, but a bad slot on day 4 of the HIT sale didn’t help and now she, like Surrey Mist, is being retrained for dressage.   

Surrey Force remained a maiden, only our 4th horse (from 21) who never gave their owners that magical feeling although he battled to finish in the places in half of his races last year. Considering that, he made good money at the HIT sale and hopefully will be winning NH races for his new connections in Ireland.  

THE UGLY 

Not one of racing’s greatest moments, and one that brought several differing reactions from the owners involved, but Rob Hornby forgetting to weigh in at Salisbury after finishing third on Surrey Belle was an ugly moment which we’d rather not have to go through again.  

2025 

We have high hopes for all our horses in 2025, wishing them an injury-free year and the chance to lead us to the best racedays. We aim to go one step further in the Scottish National and expect to be highly competitive at Royal Ascot, as well as at other major flat racing festivals. We’re also eagerly anticipating the debut of our 4 new horses, and we hope they’ll help keep their owners' dreams alive. Above all, we want you to enjoy the experience—don’t get disheartened by the inevitable lows, don’t expect financial gain, but make new friends, stay healthy, keep smiling, and if you can do all that, we’ll certainly be there to help you celebrate the highs with enthusiasm!   

Possible races and events.  

January
Friday 10th – Surrey Noir – Deauville
Saturday 11th – Surrey Quest – Kempton or Warwick
Thursday 16th - Sea Presenting – Ludlow
Thursday 23rd – Sea Presenting - Huntingdon
February
Saturday 1st – Surrey Quest - Sandown
Sunday 2nd – Surrey Quest – Musselburgh 
Saturday 22nd – Surrey Quest - Newcastle
March
Saturday 29th – Surrey Shadow - Doncaster
April
Saturday 12th – Surrey Quest - Ayr 

 

 

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Seeing out 2024