2012 Crop Revisited: Massabielle

It's that time of the year when the newcomers have all been registered with their racing names. To make the list at the foot of the page make sense, I'm putting up the profiles we did earlier once again with the name rather than a catalogue number, along with a newer picture.

Courtesy Carrot Club

Based at the Ogasa Stable at Miho TC, this colt is interesting, because the mother is Mejiro Lourdes, who gave birth to Lourdes No Hitomi - a horse that gave me a great deal of entertainment in the JRA arena and is now fighting it out in NAR racing. As such, there's not much point in going over the dam side again - it's simply enough to say that Mejiro Lourdes was sired by Sunday Silence, with strong Mejiro family lines in the female side of the equation.

The sire is Harbinger, a legend in racing circles that had his career cut short by an injury. Still, six wins from nine races, including victory in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, plus a second and a third, allowed him to stand as a stallion in Japan from 2011.

Harbinger has some truly beautiful bloodlines, with Danehill as one grandfather and Bering as the other. Danehill, successfully combining the blood of Tesio's greatest, goes down in history as being one of the most successful sires of all-time, while Bering won the Prix du Jockey Club and came second in the L'Arc de Triomphe during his career. His mother is the French-registered Penang Pearl, who picked up a useful 3-5-1 record on the track before becoming a broodmare.

Name Game

More Carrot Club reports starting to filter through - the usual sad mix of nothing worth passing on beyond treadmill and canter work, although there was one (the one for Belle Plage) that noted more work was needed on getting its body in shape (still!); True Motion apparently becomes tired if she does too much (see the last blog entry!), and Glint Moment is slowly but surely taking root in Hokkaido. I think we're being stringed along on this one to avoid a refund. It will never race as far as I'm concerned, and if it does beat the time limit, it will certainly not have been trained...

At least the newcomers have names now, so I'll bring up their profiles again over the next few days with their official racing names on them. The 'Avonbridge Filly' is also being named in England as we speak, with everyone's suggestions now being voted on by the syndicate members. I will put her profile up again, too, as soon as a final name has been decided on and registered.

Question

Today's question: How can a 17-year old racehorse, on regular feed - albeit high-quality - have more energy than a three-year old one? It's a question that bugs me, and gets raised once again with Mephisto Waltz on light canter work. Geez! The thing jogged around a track over two weeks ago, is young, injury-free, supposedly muscle-bound and on racing feed, and the Northern Farm people are still in the midst of considering something a bit more strenuous than a light canter. The reason I'm asking, is 'Jaguar' did light canter work for almost an hour that I know of (as I was there watching the kids doing it), on Thursday and Friday, and trotting here, there and everywhere on Saturday, with a roll around in the paddock to follow. Then on Sunday, he went for a 15-minute walk in the countryside (road work), a 15-minute warm-up at various speeds, including fast canter, and then half-an-hour of real hard work jumping - the sweat was pouring off every inch of him, yet his eyes were still burning bright and his ears were pricked ready for another go. After a ten-minute easy walk, he had a nice warm shower and a rub down. On the next day, full of zest and the joys of spring, with no signs whatsoever of fatigue, either mental or in any of his joints, he was in action again. It makes you wonder what he'd be like on race feed!

Don't get me wrong, there are times when R&R is a good thing - Raining Dollars was away for a while as a reward for his hard work, and that's fair enough, as he's a very young horse that had a really hard session followed by a lot of new experiences all in quick succession. He'll now be ready for the next stage in his career. But to just keep sending horses away that haven't done anything is madness. It takes time for them to readjust to a training regime, and time is something Carrot Club horses do not have - if they haven't won by the end of summer, they're gone. Of course, the trainers don't care, because another horse will come anyway (it's Japan - the land of opportunity if you have right school tie) and the clubs don't care, because they'll be more than happy to sell you a replacement from the next catalogue. But it's a sad reflection of the lack of pride and a sad reflection of the way horses are used simply to keep money turning over - there's certainly no interest in developing superior bloodlines, unless they can make yet more money, and no interest in giving horses a fighting chance to excel. Why rock the boat when you have a cushy number, right? In reality, the chances of Mephisto Waltz winning a race are about the same as me winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but there are Carrot Club horses I have a stake in that would benefit a great deal from some proper training - I mean real training, preparing them to race against other horses, not just a clock. The majority of them are so poorly prepared, if they were gladiators, they'd all be dead within seconds of entering the arena...

NAR Update

Agua De Vida is apparently coming along nicely, with more bits being tried in time for the next Kawasaki meeting (in the first week of March). The Shadai TC horse, Phosphorus, is also set to run at Kawasaki, which should be interesting. More details, including the jockey line-up, to follow soon...

PS. Looks like Agua will be running on the 4th.

Never Ceases To Amaze #2

Another thing that never ceases to amaze me is the extraordinary level of thinking the JRA trainers have. We've had the classic case of "here's a horse that absolutely hates dirt, so let's try her on dirt again." We've had numerous cases of blaming race-rust, then promptly sending the horse on another lengthy R&R session - the list of comical errors of judgement goes on and on beyond belief to be perfectly frank. Well, the latest is a plan to send Sophisticate off for an R&R session to reduce his tension. Would it not be better to get him used to being around other horses, and have him walking in and out of starting gates every day? He will come back, nicely relaxed, and at the first sign of a track, freak out again. I've come to the conclusion that the majority of JRA trainers are not trainers at all, they are simply business administrators with amazing facilities that they waste. The odd horse runs well at the start, but when the natural talent era ends, they haven't got a clue what to do. Working with horses, and more importantly, understanding them, is not a quantifiable thing - a piece of paper does not make someone qualified to hold a post when you are dealing with creatures that live and breathe. The same old textbook does not work with horses. You need feel, and that is something real trainers are born with, not something that can be learnt in a classroom...

Never Ceases To Amaze

Now here's a much brighter story. Mayano Time (aka 'Jaguar'), my crazy Thoroughbred that won four races in his younger days but used to kick, bite and throw everyone in sight once his racing career ended, was enjoying himself today jumping at an 80cm level - on pure instinct, too, as he's never been formally trained in this discipline. With care, attention and respect, this onry old horse (born in 1997) has become a lovable character that only gets snappy when he's sleepy and falls into default mode, and has won dressage, gymkhana and show-jumping events with both Louis and Sophie, which was unthinkable a few years ago. The way he was going today, clearing fences with ease and zest, it might be worth concentrating on jumping - a happy horse with confidence in those around him can do amazing things. If the JRA trainers want lessons on how to deal with horses properly, my rates are reasonable.

Not Funny

I'm sure there are quite a few people who've been waiting to read this in view of what happened at Tokyo-Fuchu today. I've deliberately held back my comments until my blood has stopped boiling, and I will leave you to imagine what I would have written a few hours earlier. It wouldn't have been pretty! These words are straight, but filled with a greater level of disappointment and a lot less anger...

First of all, we have Sophisticate - a horse that came a promising fourth in his first outing, and then for some reason fell to pieces. Today, there was some trouble in the gate, but that doesn't explain the poor performance after that. A gap appeared, it didn't respond. A disgusting 14th place to show for my support and investment, which is the horse's worst result so far, and its worst losing margin. I didn't think it could get any worse than the times logged in December - obviously I was wrong.

For those of you thinking I'm pissed off because the horse didn't win, I will point out the fact that Miracle Rouge didn't win last week, but I was still pleased. Why? Because there was some effort shown by both horse and jockey. That's all I ask for, and I don't honestly think that's asking for too much. All too often, the Carrot Club horses just turn up, fill the gate, and crawl around at training pace, taking in views of the nature on the way round, while the real racehorses are off in the distance - they don't even seem to try!

Anyone still left wondering why I'm sick to death of Carrot Club only needs to look at the seventh race. Yes, Tenshinramman, the horse that had pages written about her in the newspapers and glowing reports in JRA race previews is now relegated to the dregs of 4YO racing. Even outside the main event, she could still only muster fifth favourite status, and although it wasn't quite her worst ever performance, it was bloody close. Tanaka, blaming the horse, is saying she was too nervous today, but a good jockey can calm a horse down - it's called horsemanship. Even the final run-in time was off the pace, with her 34.2 for the last three furlongs (downhill) being 11th best - a full second adrift of the winner. The very best 3F time posted in the race was 0.1 seconds off that 'Tenny' put up in her first race as a two-year old. On paper, the winner shouldn't have even got close to her, yet somehow finished the best part of seven lengths ahead of her.

The trainer may feel obliged to Tanaka for giving him his first Grade race win (of only two to date), and Tanaka was all over the horse when it was doing well. However, it was his fault it didn't qualify for The Oaks, and today's report as good as reads "not my problem, mate." They are not the words of someone apparently losing sleep worrying about how to make this horse win, and as he obviously can't handle 'Tenny', I would give the ride to someone like Tosaki-san who can read a horse's temperament. The problem is, of course, now that she's had a good record totally ruined, who is going to want to ride her? You may as well retire her now while there are still a few of us that can remember what her raw talent made her capable of - before her so-called 'training' programme made her a nervous wreck that has forgotten how to run fast just for the thrill of it. I tell you one thing for sure - give me 'Tenny', and I guarantee I'd have her winning again by the time summer came around.