FAMOUS CARS & HORSES
The first cars were known as horseless carriages, but there was little to identify which make was which in the early days. As such, badges and other points of recognition were duly introduced to help distinguish the various marques as they evolved. Without doubt, when it comes to car badges, the prancing horse of Ferrari has to be one of the easiest to recognize, although few realize how this now-famous trademark came into being.

After winning one particular race in 1923, Enzo Ferrari was approached by Count Enrico Baracca, who congratulated the young racer on his sterling drive. Ultimately, Ferrari was befriended by the Baracca family, and the insignia that the Count’s son had used on his WWI fighter plane (a trophy from one particular dogfight with a man proud of his Stuttgart roots) was adopted by him – a Cavallino Rampante, which Ferrari duly placed on a yellow shield (the colour representing the city of Modena), with the Italian flag across the top.

It's ironic that a German coat of arms should come to symbolize an Italian vehicle, but such is life! The same coat of arms does crop up again on a German car, however, albeit in a later design format introduced just before the Second World War. Look closely at the centre of the Porsche badge, and there it is again, Ferry Porsche using the Stuttgart city insignia as a starting point for the crest he designed whilst talking in a restaurant in the early fifties.

Courtesy Bugatti

My favourite of all the car and horse-related design links, though, is that surrounding the Bugatti marque. 

Ettore Bugatti was notoriously passionate about horses, keeping them himself, and often seen wandering around his factory in riding gear. Not satisfied with a simple badge to show his love for our four-legged friends, coming from an artistic family, Ettore used the image of a horseshoe for his signature radiator grille surrounds, while pre-war adverts and catalogues rather fittingly described the exotic Bugatti creations as 'Le Pur-Sang des Automobiles' - wording that translates into English as the thoroughbred of automobiles.

Tomorrow, it's back to horses proper, as Mistoffelees takes to the starting gate for his second race, lining up against 15 other Thoroughbreds in Nagoya. Watch this space... 

THOROUGHBRED
The latest issue of Thoroughbred has just arrived from the Shadai Group. There's always something of interest in it, but in this edition, the thing that caught my attention is that it's time to try and name the yearlings - over 250 of them, all pictured in full colour. It's a shame I don't have enough postcards to deal with this year's purchases, but knowing how bad I am at naming things, two attempts is probably more than enough!

Also had some updates on the new yearlings from Carrot Club. Expectations are high for No.088, the trainer saying he has the potential to be one of Conduit's best, while No.008 (sired by King Kamehameha) is impressing all those who deal with her. Having just watched the video, I think we can expect a very quick debut for this filly - she looks incredibly mature on the move already.

LATE NIGHT EXCURSION
Still feeling a little jet-lagged from TCK last night, but at least a certain girl called Sophie is pleased she went - even the rain at the end of the meeting couldn't dampen her spirits! 

Because I'd heard there was a good chance of the weather aping that of England, I only had a small pocket camera with me, so the photography isn't great. But at least this gives a taste of the atmosphere. Amazingly, both Sophie and Louis were up for school this morning, despite not getting home from Tokyo until eleven o'clock...

By the way, the scheduled jockey for Miracle Rouge on the 8th has changed. It could be Kitamura-san, but this has yet to be confirmed. I'll let you know as soon as I know something for sure. One thing I can say with a degree of certainty, though - I'll be at Nakayama, and if Miracle Rouge can get out the gate in a spritely manner, I'll be banking on taking a winning post shot, as there's no doubt she has the pace and stamina to be a winner!

FAIRY ROBE - THE RACE CAMPAIGN BEGINS

Courtesy Carrot Club

Yesterday, with Seiji Yamazaki in the saddle, Fairy Robe passed her test with ease, coming first in her group. By all accounts, she loves to run, and if the theories of Federico Tesio are to be trusted (I certainly trust them!), then we have a potential winner on our hands. With luck, she can make her race debut on the 17th December. I'm looking forward to it. Meanwhile, here's a picture of her at the Yamazaki (Hiromi Racing) stables in Kawasaki...

By the way, the scheduled jockey for Miracle Rouge on the 8th has changed. It could be Kitamura-san, but this has yet to be confirmed. I'll let you know as soon as I know something for sure. One thing I can say with a degree of certainty, though - I'll be at Nakayama, and if Miracle Rouge can get out the gate in a spritely manner, I'll be banking on taking a winning post shot, as there's no doubt she has the pace and stamina to be a winner!

FAIRY ROBE'S BIG DAY
Our NAR filly gets to take her test today - an official stamp of approval that will enable her to run at Kawasaki, where she's based, and the other NAR tracks. I have my fingers crossed that she'll make it through - at least the people looking after her and riding her are top class, so she already has that in her favour. However, you'll probably know quicker than me if she passed, as my mobile is an antique version without internet set up on it. As I said before, you're talking to Mr Analogue himself here! I shall be disappearing to the Tokyo-Oi track for the day, and therefore isolated from the IT world...

Courtesy Carrot Club

On the subject on internet, we seem to be able to pull in over 100 visitors a day to the blog with ease nowadays. Yesterday, we had our first person from the Philippines tuning in, which I would lay odds is a jockey friend of
mine living out there - will have to check on that later.
We've also had visitors from Vietnam now.

Did anyone see 'Wild Boy' Yoshimura on the TV last night, taking on Kosei Miura on the track? Ignoring the handicap, which stretched to seven seconds (35 lengths) in the end, Yoshimura did a brilliant job, showing a very high level of control and race awareness considering the short time he had to train (about three months solid). All good fun, and great exposure for the sport we love, too! Everyone from the programme was surprised by the speeds involved.

GENKI MARUYAMA 
Having ridden Mistoffelees to second place the other day, Genki Maruyama jumps on him again on Sunday. As such, while he's already well-known in Japan as one of the top JRA jockeys, now seems like as good a time as any to introduce Genki to English speakers.

Courtesy JRA

Born in Gunma prefecture in October 1990, Genki comes from a horseman's family, with his father an ex-NAR jockey and grandfather a trainer. Attached to the Nemoto Stable at Miho, he can be seen most weekends wearing all manner of silks, as is the norm with JRA riders (NAR jockeys tend to be identified by their personal colours).

Genki qualified for his jockey licence in 2009, with his first ride coming in March that year. Four months later, he clocked up his first win - a slow start compared to some of his contemporaries, but he soon made up for it, even securing G1 rides from the spring of 2011 onwards. This month he won his 200th JRA race. Let's hope he can add another one to his total with Mistoffelees at the weekend.

CARROT KIDS 
In amongst the batch of regular reports, one piece of news caught my attention - the debut of Quadrille is expected to come early next year. How early, it didn't say, but it's an obvious sign of progress, and this majestic creature (a filly sired by Dalakhani, with Sadler's Wells as the damsire) is bound to make an impact in the paddock if nothing else!

Courtesy Carrot Club

The larger volume of traffic through the blog today, at least for this time of the day, is largely due to Hiromi Kobayashi - a lady Keiba enthusiast living in Hiroshima, who, like me, is extremely disappointed to hear that the Fukuyama track is threatened with imminent closure. Hiromi is using all manner of IT outlets to raise awareness of the problem, and what closing the gates will mean to fans and workers alike. Please support her and others in any way you can to try and save this charming racecourse, by all means through me if you like. Ultimately, I want to help in any way I can.

On the subject of traffic volume, we shot past 6500 so quickly I forgot to mention it. We're now at the 6600 mark, meaning an average of about 87 visitors a day since we started, including a new group of racing fans from Poland.

ARIMA KINEN
After the heartbreaking news from Fukuyama, it's probably a good time to brighten things up a bit by mentioning the Arima Kinen. Ultimately, time is running out if you want to vote for the horses running in it.

Of the three forms submitted by this house, about half of the ten names are the same, with the other half all different - a result of passion versus Louis the Keibaholic's clinical approach to selection. Some early signs of a decent trainer showing through already...

FUKUYAMA
The official announcement has been made regarding the closure of the NAR Fukuyama track. According to people on the scene, there was a hollow apology and very little chance to appeal against the decision. This doesn't sound right to me, and is totally out of character with the many friends I have in Hiroshima thanks to my car activities.

Closing a racecourse may be a simple way of balancing the books on paper, but there will be a lot of money lost indirectly as a result. Trainers, jockeys, grooms, track staff, drivers - they've all lost jobs, and won't spend in the local shops as a result. In this current financial climate, where else will they go? Add in the breeding trade, feed suppliers, vets, maintenance staff, et cetera, and the knock-on effect is huge. There's a lot more to it than a simple plus and minus on a balance sheet. Besides which, what will happen the land afterwards - taxes will have to be paid on something not being used!

Not so far down the road from Fukuyama is a company that was once called Toyo Kogyo. The men in the factory there were tempted to give up on a daily basis trying to perfect a new type of engine - to all concerned, there were times when it seemed an impossible task. They didn't give up, though, because they could see they had something special. In the end, the 47 Samurai assigned to the project gave the world the Mazda rotary engine - one of the finest power-units ever made.

Going back a bit further, Hiroshima rose from the ashes of war to fight back and become reborn as what I feel is one of the most beautiful cities in Japan. It is a twin city with my hometown, Coventry, because that was also badly bombed in WWII - indeed, the word 'Coventrated' was added to the dictionary to symbolize something that has been completely destroyed.

But ultimately, Hiroshima and its people have a history of overcoming the seemingly impossible. Where is that fighting spirit in the local government today? If those behind Urawa can turn a loss-making track into one that now makes a profit, despite the poor economy, surely it can be done at the picturesque Fukuyama track with a little innovation...

A FOUR-LEGGED SUPERCAR
There are a lot of my old car friends that struggle with the image of performance when trying to compare a road vehicle with a racehorse. Well, out of interest, kick a Thoroughbred in the guts, and the 0-40mph time (40 miles an hour being the equivalent of 65 kilometres an hour) is about 2.5 seconds, which is roughly the same as a well-driven Ferrari F355 on a perfect road surface is capable of. The feeling of effortless torque is phenomenal - a bit like a V12 Jaguar, the 'steering' is accurate and full of feedback (sometimes!), the 'brakes' are truly remarkable, and the feeling through the 'seat' is second to none. Not so good on fuel consumption, but who cares... Jinba Ittai!

URAWA RACE TRACK
Today we'll take a look at the last of the four Minami-Kanto dirt tracks run by the NAR organization - the rather quaint Urawa racecourse in Saitama...

Before the war, there was a track at Omiya, but this was abandoned after the conflict. For a short time there was racing at Kasukabe in the immediate post-war years, but with the upheaval on governing bodies caused by the disbanding of the Japan Racing Society, the decision was taken by the local government to open a new facility at Urawa. The site officially opened in October 1947, with the first meeting taking place six months later.

Although the Noda Training Centre takes pressure off the site, the anti-clockwise Urawa track itself (and the paddock that goes with it) is a small one, making the start for 1600m races, which takes place off the third corner, notoriously difficult. On saying that, the limited size makes you feel closer to the action! The main races of the year are the Urawa Kinen, which I went to the other day, and the Sakitama Cup.

The facility was losing money for many years after 'The Bubble' burst, but it's now firmly back in the black, with a park inside that can be used on non-race days, and even a heliport - useful if ever I get a helicopter licence! There is also a radio station called FM Urawa, used to promote race meetings and other events held at the track.

A SEA OF PEOPLE 
Made a last minute decision to allow myself to be dragged across to Tokyo-Fuchu today - Louis had been pestering me to go to the Japan Cup for weeks, but I'd managed to resist the pressure well until this morning. When a meeting failed to materialize and a black joke about going (but not going!) was met with the kind of disappointment that only a mature 12-year old boy can show - no tantrums, no words other than "Hidoi," but the kind of doe eyes that compete with those of the cat in the Shrek series, it suddenly seemed like a good idea! 

Considering the huge amount of people there (in excess of 110,000 according to the TV report), including some friends that had also ventured out for the day (getting up at 3am!), the transport system held up well, and there was only a minimum of waiting at the various facilities once inside. Full marks to JRA on the logistics, and the racing was just as good.

In the end, the main event turned out to be a two-horse race won by Gentildonna, with Orfevre coming home in a close second - a battle between the sexes and Triple Crown winners (Gentildonna had won the the filly equivalent), and a triumph for the Sunday Thoroughbred Club, with its horses filling the top three places. A good day out, but having fought my way across what feels like half of Japan, and waded through a sea of people, it's time to jump in the bath and then down a little nightcap...