Finished work for now until the time difference makes people come alive in England again, so I thought I'd check on the Japanese club horse reports. Well, that didn't take long, for there was nothing new on the Shadai/Sunday front, and although there are only nine Carrot horses left to watch, seven of them are stuck at Northern Farm!
Out of interest, I thought I'd look at how the new crop of NAR nags were selling. None of the four have reached a 'nearly sold' status, which clicks in after two-thirds of the shares have been claimed. This is probably easy to explain, for of last year's lot, only one has raced - once, and that was three months ago, when it duly broke a bone! Of the crop before that, Shine Tiara has already been retired in disgrace, Million Ways should be retired, Chocolat Sucre is fragile and hardly has ran as a result, Trovao did well until it too broke down, and Nine Half (the only one of the five 2013 NAR horses I didn't take a stake in, and the cheapest of the bunch as it happens) has provided a fair bit of sport but seems to have gone off the boil of late.
Significantly, there were six NAR runners offered by Carrot Club in the 2012 crop - now it is down to four, and they are obviously slow to sell. I would say, and this applies to all the clubs out here, that this is not a lack of enthusiasm (NAR followers are a passionate bunch) but a lack of trust in the items being sold at the prices asked - trust that can only be built up when shareholders see their horses running with a bit of effort (even running would be a damned good start in most cases!) and sugar-coated excuses to cover incompetence are thrown to the side in favour of honest reports, stating what has gone wrong and why when a failure occurs...
PS. As well as Larressingle's attempt at survival, we should have some Aussie racing next weekend, with All Rosie hoping for back-to-back wins at Ewan - he's entered for both Friday and Saturday (assuming he comes out of the first race OK), so you never know. All quiet in England while the shuffling goes on in preparation for another season (Sayesse will probably run next week, though), which means Ireland should be kicking off, although I'm not sure what to think regarding that campaign to be perfectly honest. Perhaps when this big project I'm on is finished, I can clear my head and give it all some serious thought.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Ol' Smelly
At last, months after the obvious conclusion should have been made, Perfumer has been retired. I look forward to the same notice with Massabielle (and others), for you can't keep going forever and ever saying "we're not sure what the problem is, but we need more time." If you can't find the problem, you can't cure it. If you can't cure the problem, you can't race the nag. If you can't race it, it's not a racehorse, and therefore has no meaning in this environment.
PS. News has just come through that Larressingle will have a last chance run at Nakayama on either the 24th or 25th. Now here's the interesting bit - on dirt! Considering the horse has never run on dirt, this signals either a lack of gate berths (highly likely) or an inspired move (less likely). It could be a disaster in reality, and highlights how wasteful those last two outings were, particularly the Miura one, which frankly looked like a set-up to me. Well, if it can't win and has to go, it goes - one of them... Meanwhile, Pop Label is down to run at TCK on the 20th, with Mori-kun taking the reins in the 1600m 12R. Hope the typhoon stays away!
PPS. The usual grey reports from Carrot Club, covering the fact that there is no intention to do anything with any of the horses as long as NF keeps getting paid. Waiting on Massabielle, and hoping it states retirement, because six months out and not one positive comment on what is wrong or how to go about getting the nag back to the track is not good enough. Run it or sell it.
PPPS. The retirement notice came just after I pressed the button to save this post, folks finally coming to the conclusion that to get a good horse again will take too long. Of course, the question of who screwed Massabielle up in the first place won't get answered (indeed, the question won't even have been asked - don't want to rock the boat, as it's only members' money that got wasted), but at least we won't have to keep listening to constant bull.
PS. News has just come through that Larressingle will have a last chance run at Nakayama on either the 24th or 25th. Now here's the interesting bit - on dirt! Considering the horse has never run on dirt, this signals either a lack of gate berths (highly likely) or an inspired move (less likely). It could be a disaster in reality, and highlights how wasteful those last two outings were, particularly the Miura one, which frankly looked like a set-up to me. Well, if it can't win and has to go, it goes - one of them... Meanwhile, Pop Label is down to run at TCK on the 20th, with Mori-kun taking the reins in the 1600m 12R. Hope the typhoon stays away!
PPS. The usual grey reports from Carrot Club, covering the fact that there is no intention to do anything with any of the horses as long as NF keeps getting paid. Waiting on Massabielle, and hoping it states retirement, because six months out and not one positive comment on what is wrong or how to go about getting the nag back to the track is not good enough. Run it or sell it.
PPPS. The retirement notice came just after I pressed the button to save this post, folks finally coming to the conclusion that to get a good horse again will take too long. Of course, the question of who screwed Massabielle up in the first place won't get answered (indeed, the question won't even have been asked - don't want to rock the boat, as it's only members' money that got wasted), but at least we won't have to keep listening to constant bull.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Today's Donkey #2
Of course, Million Ways has now been shipped off to Northern Farm. I guarantee it won't do any good, as I have yet to see any decent results come of a NF stay, although it will make lots of cash for 'the boys', so no-one will question the reasoning behind the move as usual. How many months away? Who knows, but it will be dragged out as long as possible, because members are paying. The bill? That will be big, regardless of being justified or not. Results later? After the race-rust excuses have ran their course, sweet feck all. Another waste of time and money...
PS. Magic Key has re-qualified for race status after its seriously long (and expensive) break. Now if it could win a race a week for the next six months, we might just about get back to where we are supposed to be. Ahhh, Japan - yep, that won't happen! But let's see how things go. At least we might get some entertainment out of it, in a month when the only two runs in Japan have resulted in an injury and a retirement from racing after a series of poor performances. A comeback is scheduled for Kawasaki in the first week of October. Now, where the bloody hell is Phosphorus? And why isn't there a plan to get Belle Plage in action again? Reports say there's nothing wrong with it, yet it has been away four months already. Like Massabielle and War Chronicle, time it get it earning its keep, or retire it!
PS. Magic Key has re-qualified for race status after its seriously long (and expensive) break. Now if it could win a race a week for the next six months, we might just about get back to where we are supposed to be. Ahhh, Japan - yep, that won't happen! But let's see how things go. At least we might get some entertainment out of it, in a month when the only two runs in Japan have resulted in an injury and a retirement from racing after a series of poor performances. A comeback is scheduled for Kawasaki in the first week of October. Now, where the bloody hell is Phosphorus? And why isn't there a plan to get Belle Plage in action again? Reports say there's nothing wrong with it, yet it has been away four months already. Like Massabielle and War Chronicle, time it get it earning its keep, or retire it!
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