RACING DEBUTS
So far, of the younger horses, only Tenshinramman has made a racing debut - a filly by Heart's Cry, out of Hana Ramman, whose father was Sakura Yutaka O. In much the same way as Roberto blotted the "unbeatable" Brigadier Gerard's copy book, Heart's Cry was made famous after beating Deep Impact, and it's ironic that on her maiden outing, Tenshinramman was up against two of Deep Impact's kids.

The first race (1800m on turf) came in August at Niigata, which is frankly too far from where I live, so I chose to watch events unfold on the big screen at Nakayama. The starting odds had her down as fourth favourite, priced at 18.3:1, while the top Deep Impact runner, which had sold for a hefty 76,000,000 yen was almost at evens, at 1.2:1.

Well, after a nicely timed run, on the final drive for the post Tenshinramman was squashed out as the two horses in front of her closed in on each other, and the highly-experienced jockey, Katsuhara Tanaka, rightfully had to pull back. Given that, and the fact that she was still finishing hard, finishing second by three-quarters of a length (and nearly two lengths ahead of the third-placed horse) shows exceptional promise. Now this blog is at last up and running, I'll keep you abreast of progress on all the horses as things happen in the future...