Outsider, Like Me...

After messing around with short distances for ages, those in the shadows finally choose a more suitable distance, and Pop Label has drawn gate 14 of 15 on the 6th at TCK. Again, this extreme outside gate business has got to be more than a coincidence! Is this what you get for speaking out against a rotten system? Well, whatever, with this in mind (seeing as Pop Label couldn't get out the stalls on time if his tail was on fire) and the fact that Sasagawa-kun hasn't managed to read 'Pop' at all so far, and it boils down to another race I'll be watching on TV, if I even bother doing that...

PS. At least Trovao has drawn a decent berth, with Mar-kun (Masashige Honda) getting gate five in the S1 Tokyo Derby on Wednesday. A tough race, but it should be a good one. Wishing Mar-kun and Arayama-sensei the very best of luck! Meanwhile, Another Door has been booked for a 1200m race at Monbetsu on the 9th; when (or if) Chocolat Sucre will race again, remains to be seen, as she is having a throat operation.

Epsom Event

Having won twice in three races, poor Sayesse couldn't get the job done for us at Epsom today, but it was a Class 1 Listed Stakes race, so just being there was an achievement. It was worth a crack, and I'm proud of him anyway - there's still a lot of flat racing left to go in the UK, and he'll win again for sure. Perhaps Masterson will give me my 50th?

Meanwhile, there's already preliminary listings and talk of new Japanese club catalogues coming out. This is normally a highlight in the year for me, but there is no interest at all this time around. Whatever arrives will go straight on the shelf, unopened, placed alongside older editions, and there they will stay until they are needed for future reference. At least there are exciting things happening 6000 miles away in the background. Time for some big changes and proper racing, in a land far, far away.

Fizzled Out

With a strange run of race date changes and the Leicester meeting abandoned just before Lillyput was due to go into the parade ring, we've not had much in the way of UK action this week after all, although we should have a good few runners from Friday onwards.

We've also got Phosphorus (pictured) on Friday, but given that we've drawn gate 11 of 12 (amazing that I somehow always get poor gate draws - just saying!) and the short 1400m distance involved, what little bit of confidence I did have has just gone out the window. Rather than make the long trek to Urawa, I'll therefore just stay at home and watch the race on TV, as I expect we'll do nothing more than make up the numbers now this information has come to light.

Courtesy Shadai TC

PS. Fizzled out happens to describe Phosphorus' race perfectly - the start was poor (worrying, in fact, the nasty way he dropped out the gate), and by end of the the third corner and start of the fourth, there was simply nothing there. It was almost as if he started going backwards! Ultimately, he finished in a very, very disappointing sixth place, and therefore zero earnings - just what you need after six months away from the track. To be honest, I can see another Pop Label scenario here - a horse that just won't perform the way it did before surgery, come hell or high water. I don't know how many chances he needs, but, as much as I love him, he's running out of them in my mind. Yano-sensei, who I respect a great deal, is saying he wants revenge at Funabashi, so I suppose all we can do is wait and see what happens. At least when he says something, you can believe it...

Quisquiliae

Once again, my Carrot Club reports look like an advert for Northern Farm, as virtually every animal I have a stake in seems to have NF against it, which is frankly pathetic considering this is supposed to be a racing organisation - 'NF' and 'treadmill' have been a constant feature in my weekly reports for far too long now! In fact, nothing has changed for weeks, with only the dates being different compared to the picture I published on the 18th. What's more, there doesn't look like any change in the situation any time soon, with Larressingle now apparently having a back problem that may see it go into an even deeper holiday mode than the one it's in now. In reality, with the end of the season for cutting off non-winners being as close as it is, and no chance of a decent, suitable race to come, it would make more sense to throw in the towel now, while giving up on Rush Attack would be an obvious move if there was any thought whatsoever for the members. The whole JRA thing is basically a bad joke, with only Infinity Love running amongst seven nags - a horse that has come tenth in the best of its three races. Sadly, the NAR scene is catching up on the joke status far too quickly for my liking, with Million Ways off, Lotus Blossom and Chocolat Sucre resting, and others totally out of form. Can Trovao save the day? We'll find out soon enough.

PS. Just checked on the 3yo Carrot horses as a whole, and of 72 JRA nags, two have retired, 24 are at racing stables (one assumes awaiting a run), one is at Green Wood on holiday, and the rest (45) are all at Northern Farm! As for the 4yo horses, just 11 of the 44 are at racing stables, with two at different R&R spots, meaning 31 (70%) are at NF. Conclusive proof there are too many horses for the races and stable places available, begging the question why time and money are being spent on the likes of Rush Attack.

I was also looking at the Deep Impact kids to see if they offered anything like the value people want us to believe they hold: One, stationed with Ikee, cost 120,000,000 yen and ran twice (winning both races to give 17,300,000 yen) and has been off with a bad foot since its last run in January; one 50,000,000 yen beast has run four times and won twice to give 32,310,000 yen (promising); one at 44,000,000 yen filly has done extremely well to bring in 233,330,000 yen (the dam happened to be a two-time G1 winner, although I'm sure no-one bothered looking beyond the 'Deep wins again' headlines); another 50,000,000 yen one has won 7,000,000 yen after three races; a 70,000,000 yen horse has brought in 6,200,000 yen off four races; a filly at 36,000,000 yen a decent 18,880,000 yen, and a final one at the same price, a whopping 5,800,000 yen off three races. Draw your own conclusions...

PPS. No idea on Infinity Love's next race, but at least the horse is staying at the stables, which is something. Due to the distinct lack of races in JRA, the trainer will have to take whatever comes, and the distance will probably go up to 2000m for the next outing. I think 1800m would be better, but it's getting a berth in the gate that's the problem - you can see how the system works against proper training! Failure in the next race will make it difficult for the nag to continue, of course, although there may be one more chance after that...