Monday, March 28, 2016

War Clouds Clearing

After all the disappointment in Japanese racing (most of it Joke Racing Association-related as usual), hopefully Raining Dollars will provide us with some fun on the 1st April Down Under, while Sayesse is due to debut in the UK at Kempton Park on the following day. In both cases, we can guarantee 100% effort will be evident and the result will be a fair reflection of the horse's ability, unlike the JRA lot, where only one or two in 100 trainers seem to care about anything beyond their own wealth and keeping their hours to an absolute minimum. Of course, the difference is that in Australia and Britain, racing is a real business. If you keep failing, you lose clients and go down, whereas in JRA, the system is just like the civil service - a constant stream of well-paid work for life, regardless of what you do or how you do it, because trainer licences are overly-restricted to keep things the way they are, and the greed of the breeding industry keeps producing more horses than the handful of decent trainers can possibly handle. Even the exclusive use of two so-called 'Training Centres' rather than private enterprises makes sure that the work is spread around nicely, keeping the retards in clover.

In addition, a limitless number of possible race entries means that new horses like Sayesse can go out just for experience (like this first run), making sure that it will improve over the coming year. In JRA, the lack of races means everything is basically down to luck - no time to develop race-craft, and if a trainer comes across a horse that doesn't perform well straight out the box, rather than make into a racer (which would require time and skill), they just let it go in totally unsuitable races (usually three, it seems - just enough to say they tried) in the knowledge that plenty of replacements are on the way until the day they retire. The ivory tower they live in means they don't even have to face anyone beyond those that keep feeding them the horses, which are usually clubs related to breeding groups, because ownership is overly-restricted, too. The monopoly and mergers commission would have a field day in any other country!

PS. Sayesse's debut has been moved to Friday 8th (a change to allow the youngster to run on proper turf rather than an all-weather track), while Blacklister should be out soon, too. Something to look forward to!

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