THE MISTOFFELEES MYSTERY 
In years to come, if Mistoffelees ever makes it to legendary status, we shall look back on today with a wry smile and a shrug of the shoulders. It was a textbook race - starting as firm favourite, he came out the gate nicely, Maruyama-san set him up beautifully all the way round, and as the whip was applied in the last couple of furlongs, faced with a clear run to the post, I'd almost started walking to collect my winnings on the little wager I'd placed. And then something weird happened - either he started going backwards, or the other horses started going faster than him, despite him supposedly being in a different league to them...

According to preliminary reports, from both the jockey and the trainer, there doesn't seem to be any explanation for this, which is frankly almost as worrying as an injury given the fine display of speed and power Mistoffelees delivered in his first outing. In reality, it's a whole lot more disappointing than Tenshinramman's defeat, because at least we know what caused it - it was just a bad rub of the green.

It could be simply an off day (we've all had those!), or maybe he was put off by being in unfamiliar surroundings? Or it could be that he doesn't like travelling long distances, and Nagoya was a fair old trek after all said and done. Perhaps he just doesn't like the type of track he was faced with this afternoon? Maybe he should have been given a free rein to run out up front as seems to be his natural desire. Anyway, I hope to have some more details on what happened out there today in the days to come.

If it was just an off day, it could be we have a Jaguar (Mayano Time) type horse on our hands - a victory followed by a disaster followed by a victory, things seemingly dependent on the position of the Moon and stars as much as the ground conditions and the strength of the horses running against him. He'd start favourite and come nowhere, then start the next race as a rank outsider and beat everything in sight. He's still the same now!