Kinda Blah

Just got in the door after checking on 'Bugatti' and how the building work at the new club is coming along, and found a nice picture of Perfumer and a note of congratulations on his forthcoming debut. Well, as usual, the gates are all overflowing with entries, and his first race will have to be postponed. It really is a bad joke - a bit like my gate draws!

Still, Harmony Fair runs at Nakayama on the 14th, being entered in the 1800m dirt 8R. Hironobu Tanabe is in the saddle, as he was for one of her earlier failures. Even before the gate draw, I'm not expecting much. After yesterday, it's quite a fall on the excitement scale, somewhere just above watching paint dry. I think the phrase "flogging a dead horse" was based on her performances.

Meanwhile, Irish Harp is supposed to be out on the 21st. Whether Perfumer will make it next weekend is another question. It's a bloody shame, because the practice time posted on the 11th was pretty good. Also, Kalliopeia is at the Miho Training Centre again, and hopefully a race will come of it this time.

With a leg problem, albeit minor at this stage, the catalogue of disasters continues with J'ai Un Reve, to the point where I'm starting to question whether folks out here actually want Montjeu blood to succeed. There certainly doesn't seem to be any special treatment from the Ikee Stable. To be frank, I don't think anyone is taking any notice of his development whatsoever - the last outing was a case in point, when the staff had no idea what to expect. I'm sorry, but if someone said to me, tell me how any of the horses in the Tokoro club will react in a given situation, not even one of my own, I could tell you. It's called care and attention. I'm very, very disappointed in the way this purchase is panning out, and even more disappointed in the efforts of the stable, regardless of whether it's a household brand name or not.

On the NAR front, Beat The Boarder is registered to race at Tokyo on the 19th. Let's hope it is a race-level performance this time! The weather forecast says rain, which is the last thing we need.