Murdered

Larressingle was given gate 17 in Tokyo, which was hardly the most promising of starts for us, even before the off - someone is definitely taking the mickey! Notwithstanding, the horse was still the hot favourite in the early betting (at 1.9), so we had a right to at least expect a top three finish in a field with only a few worthy rivals. Anyway, a rough start was followed by a severe hold-up caused by a Shadai TC nag on the back straight, and the fast pace forced by a runaway pony left no chance to recover. The ninth place has to be considered incredibly disappointing in a number of ways, but it is the future that concerns me more - due to the stupid way JRA works, you can bet Larressingle's next race will be over something totally unsuitable, and a horse best suited to a mile on turf will probably end up doing 2000m on dirt due to the overwhelming lack of berths in relation to the number of horses in training. We'll just have to wait and see, but I guess we'll have to put up with a long, unnecessary holiday first. A wasted outing...

Sayesse V2

Courtesy Lord Ilsley Racing

George Baker guided Sayesse to a well-deserved victory at Newmarket on Thursday, giving the frisky little fella his second win from three starts. The Lord Ilsley Racing equipe can be really proud of this one, and Ettie Hart will hopefully run at Brighton on Monday to give the syndicate another chance at glory. In the meantime, we have another race in England tonight, and I'd love that landmark 50th win to be with the Channon family. We'll see what happens, but at the very least we're guaranteed 100% effort from all involved, as always, even though Lillyput isn't particularly fancied. The once-minuscule gap between the pleasure of UK racing (thanks to the professionalism and fun injected into the game by Mick and his lad) and the constant pain I keep getting dealt from Japanese racing continues to widen...

PS. Lillyput was sixth in the Box 41 colours at Newbury, showing a marked improvement over her debut run. I have a feeling she'll be better again next time out for the run. 

CAUB II

Now, after just three runs, Kealoha has been put on the injury list as well (sore shins), meaning I've got next to nothing left running in Japan - at least not actively, considering the ridiculous length of R&R sessions and so-called 'retraining' - despite shares in 18 horses out here. I'm afraid something doesn't add up when five of the six in England were (or will be) running this week, the two in Oz keep bombing away, and the two in Ireland keep bombing away. I should also add that most of the injuries seem to occur on far-from-cheap Shadai Group horses. And they seriously want us to double our risks in the coming years so they can cut down on paperwork to make yet more profit for an organization that's already stinking rich from what basically amounts to a monopoly in the Japan racing business? No way!

Seeing as Kealoha started his career late in reality, you can almost certainly trace this ailment back to his earlier days at NF when he was hugely overweight, and an overweight training rider adding to the problem. Now he's back at Northern Farm where I can only imagine the damage will increase - at least he had a chance with proper care and weight control at his home stable. As a result, I'm publishing this picture of his last win at Funabashi (courtesy Sunday TC), because it will almost certainly be his last win full-stop if past experience is anything to go by. Other than going on a bender in Ginza every night, it would be hard to imagine a faster way of throwing money away than taking part in Japanese racing...

CAUB

Masterson came a handy fourth at Chepstow on Tuesday, and we have at least two more UK runners to come during the week. However, A Touch Of Sparkle failed to get to Perth due to the bad weather ruining the boat trip from Ireland.

As for the Japan stuff, if I was the idiot Daigo, this is where I would say "CAUB," which in this case stands for complete and utter bollocks. Perfumer has disappeared to Northern Farm (a kiss of death after such a good run), War Chronicle and Massabielle are on treadmill duty at NF (I thought they were supposed to be racehorses?), and Belle Plage has also been shipped off there with Chocolat Sucre. We may as well write them all off as far as I'm concerned...

No progress with Rush Attack (with comments that equate to nothing less than a cover-up to hide the amount of time it will take to get the horse back into racing trim), and now Million Ways is also on light duties. Perhaps Larressingle will get to run on the 15th, assuming the hoped-for race hasn't been oversubscribed by the usual amount, and Infinity Love is at least at a racing stable of sorts. Whether we will see anything resembling the horse she should be remains to be seen, but it would be hard for her to be any worse than she was in Yahagi's hands. I think we can expect another place at best from Pop Label next week, for the distance is once again too short for a horse that couldn't get out the gate in a hurry if its life was at stake, and Shine Tiara may or may not be right for Kawasaki at the end of the month (Phosphorus is down to run at the same meeting now, by the way). All that I can say is boy, do we need something from Trovao to pull us out of this low ebb in Japanese racing!

PS. Lotus Blossom has passed a gate test and will take the full race proficiency test on the 17th, so fingers crossed there, and Infinity Love is starting to look more like a racer than a donkey. Larressingle has had the Tokyo 4R approved for the 15th, with Monsieur Lemaire once more in the saddle - it's far from an easy race, with some strong rivals as well as a touch of rivalry, but it should be an interesting mile, that's for sure.

Feeling The Heat

Blacklister was squeezed out of the Nottingham race on Saturday, but at least we have plenty of other UK races coming up during the week to try and reap our revenge. We have Masterson, Ettie Hart, Lillyput and Sayesse to come in the next few days, meaning Mirzam will be the only one not to have run from Mick Channon's lot. There's a great UK season ahead of us...

The kids took part in the Colza Cup, with Louis winning, and Sophie coming second! 'Bugatti' performed beautifully, despite the flapping tents and crowds of people, as well as the realization that he was in a competitive event - something that always gets him in high-tension mode.

As for the JRA results, before the race earlier today, Perfumer was never really in with a chance as far as I was concerned. Yes, it was a low-level race, but there were one or two good ponies in the line-up that would always place a horse like Perfumer in the 'also ran' category - or so I thought. Not being funny, that was the best run I've ever seen from Perfumer - it deserved better than the sixth place it got, as it was a good solid performance from start to finish (it was a more impressive run than the win, as it happens). No-one is more surprised than me, but it makes a change to be pleasantly surprised.

Belle Plage finished off the day. I feel sorry for Ogata-san, having got a horse well-prepared on so many occasions only to have it struggling to get a berth in a suitable race. As such, this shorter than desired 1400m dirt run was a sign of desperation just to get the horse out, and even that was oversubscribed, as I see another Carrot horse failed to get an entry! Anyway, 11th is a terrible result for such a good horse - we have to put it behind us and move on, treating the race as nothing more than exercise.