TOKORO PARTY 
Today was the Tokoro RC end-of-year party, but it was also a busy day full of horses. In the morning, it was a show of support for Noriko Mori at Higashi-Kanto followed by a late breakfast. After a morning of training with Jaguar, it was the party, and then off to Higashi-Kanto again to watch some more of the show-jumping. Next up, the all-important Arima Kinen on TV, with all members armed with a betting ticket bought at Nakayama yesterday.

Everyone was in the Christmas mood it seems, even the competitors at Higashi-Kanto. A good day...

NEWS FROM CHILLY CHIBA 
A couple of new reports just come in from Carrot Club: Harmony Fair has returned to the Miho Training Centre, so should be ready to race again soon. Having already got a win under her belt, her return to the tracks is eagerly awaited.

Meanwhile, Quick Bread is still struggling with gate practice, and has failed to get the necessary rubber stamp on his paperwork twice already this week. But he seems a little off form anyway, so it has been decided to give the big fella a rest over the Christmas period. Gate training will begin again in earnest in the New Year...

RAIN STOPS PLAY
You have to feel sorry for a lot of riding club members - they work all week, looking forward to a nice weekend playing with horses, and what does it do on Saturday and Sunday? It rains. And this pattern is happening all too often recently...

It doesn't really hurt me, as I can just get up from the desk whenever I feel like it for a quick break, even if it's only for a few minutes to hand over a cookie or two to Jaguar and the rest of the equine gang. As such, the bad weather has kept me indoors today - the kids have braved Nakayama, but I've decided to work, seeing as a deadline is looming and the ground at Tokoro stables will probably resemble a lake.

Once I've knocked a hole in this new book, I'll do some more pieces for the blog outside the odd news item. For today, it looks like this is as close as I'm going to get to my beloved horses.

YEARLING UPDATE 
I was just about to apologize for not having done anything (on a roll with the new book) when I checked the Carrot Club homepage and found no less than 11 fresh reports on it - one saying that Mosto Verde had passed his gate test and that training would be done at a steady pace to make the most of his potential, and ten on the yearlings.

Courtesy Carrot Club

The majority of the yearling reports were pretty much full of routine stuff, but at least there are no real problems to report on any of the youngsters. My top choice amongst the newcomers (No.71, out of Celtic Harp by Special Week) is apparently starting to look like a real racehorse, while the trainer has high expectations of No.10 (sired by Zenno Rob Roy, with Top Motion as the dam).

The other report that jumped off the page was the one for No.22 (pictured here), who was sired by Symboli Kris S, with Grand Prix Sophi as its mother. This young colt is apparently shaping up to be another big hope. Fingers crossed...

GOOD NEWS ALL-ROUND
Firstly, the leg problem that delayed Fairy Robe's debut seems to be nothing serious, and may simply have been new shoes not matching perfectly. With luck she'll be able to race at the end of January, when there's another week of racing scheduled for the Kawasaki track.

In spite of yesterday's concerns, Lourdes No Hitomi suddenly came good with the gate training, and passed her gate test first time. Meanwhile, Quadrille has gone back to the Miho Training Centre, and with the gate test already out of the way, all she needs now is a final health check and she'll be ready to race. Everything is moving in the right direction at least...

THE WORD FOR TODAY IS... 
Gate. Three reports have come in from Carrot Club today, and all three horses involved - Mosto Verde, Quick Bread and Lourdes No Hitomi - are in the middle of gate training. In reality, all three are struggling at this stage, too, with Mosto Verde looking the most likely to pass the all-important test, and Lourdes No Hitomi needing the most work. In all fairness, the crack of the gates opening at high speed can be more than a little unnerving, so more time will be the only option...

HORSEPOWER
Just cracking on with the new book, and couldn't resist putting this up on the blog - a page from an old Mercedes-Benz catalogue making good use of the 75 horses under the bonnet as a positive sales point.

The British and Americans always tend to measure engine output in HP (standing for horsepower) or BHP (brake horsepower), while Continental Europe often uses PS (originating from the German word, Pferdestärke) as a unit, which translates into the same thing in English, and is very similar as a measurement, too. And remember the Citroen 2CV - CV is an abbreviation of chevaux, which is the French word for horses.

ANOTHER ADDITION TO THE LIBRARY
Another new book arrived courtesy of Amazon the other day - Her Majesty's Pleasure: How Horse Racing Enthrals The Queen by Julian Muscat. Actually, the subtitle just about tells you all you need to know, other than the page count (256) and cost (a score, or 20 GBP depending on which school you went to). From a professional's viewpoint, it's beautifully printed on nice paper that brings out the quality of the photographs well. With regard to the latter, keen followers of HM the Queen's racing exploits will have inevitably seen some of the pictures before, but there's a lot of new stuff included, and for those new to the subject, it's sure to provide a lot of enjoyment.

AND TODAY'S WORD IS... 
Treadmill. Because out of five reports, four had the word treadmill spring out from them - katakana that even I can recognize from having read a large number of Quick Bread's early updates, which featured 'treadmill' and very little else for several months on end. Thankfully, Quick Bread (a Nijinsky cross) has developed fast since...

Despite the treadmill workouts, Tenshinramman and Harmony Fair may be back on the tracks soon, depending on trainer opinions after an inspection, and Quadrille should be ready to make her debut early in the New Year. It's a shame about Fairy Robe, but with the weather looking as if it could snow at any minute, perhaps I should be thankful I can write this from a relatively warm office, in-between doing bits on the new Mercedes book. Would still like to escape to Kawasaki, though!

THE 2012 ARIMA KINEN 
The runners for the Arima Kinen, one of the biggest races on the Japanese turf calendar, have been announced. They are Beat Black, Daiwa Falcon, Dark Shadow, Desperado, Earnestly, Eishin Flash, Gold Ship, Lelouch, Meisho Kampaku, Nakayama Knight (surely one of the best horse names of all time), Never Bouchon, Ocean Blue, Oken Bruce Lee, Rose Kingdom, Rulership, Sky Dignity, Tanino Epaulette, To The Glory, Trailblazer, and Vertex.

Videos from the last few years can be accessed via this English language link on the JRA homepage: http://japanracing.jp/_news2012/121213.html. Some of the footage has English commentary, too.

As it happens, I've just watched the 2011 edition in English, and it's so nice to hear Jaguar Mail actually pronounced 'Jaguar' by the Aussie doing the commentary, rather than 'Jaggar' as the Japanese say, or 'Jagwaar' by the Americans. Notwithstanding, it was a good race - Orfevre was in wonderful form on the day...

FAIRY ROBE LATEST
Just heard from the Carrot Club offices that Fairy Robe has been withdrawn from her debut race on the 21st. Apparently her legs are showing signs of tiredness, and it has been decided to delay her first outing until she's 100% fit. Of course I wanted to see Fairy Robe run, but I agree entirely with the policy of the Yamazaki Stable - it's better to give the horse its best possible chance, not only at making an impact on her debut, but also allowing her to have a longer, healthier career.