Double Drat

Agua De Vida (pictured) started as firm favourite for her race this evening (with odds of 2.2:1, with her closest rival on 5.7), and although she was still looking okay on the back straight, she just went backwards from then on to deliver perhaps the most disappointing finish I've experienced all year. To be honest, it might just be the most disappointing finish of all-time as far as my horses are concerned.

Courtesy Carrot Club

I shall wait for the report before saying anything else, but the wild swerve she made early on may be part of the reason? The 8kg weight gain? Simply an off day? I just don't know at this stage. The ground certainly didn't look that heavy, so that's one thing we can eliminate...

Rubbing salt into the wound, an envelope arrived in the post this afternoon containing a photo and a letter saying congratulations on Dinner Bell's debut at about the same time as an E-mail saying her first race had been postponed due to an oversubscription! Drat and double drat.

PS. The jockey and trainer reports have shed a lot of light on Agua-chan's disastrous performance tonight. It seems she was irritated all evening, and when she wanted to go flat-out, Igarashi-san held her back with race-winning timing in mind. She obviously reacted badly to this, and refused to give anything thereafter. So, after all said and done, it looks as if we have a temperamental young lady on our hands! Thus, the trainer is going to release her for some R&R (which he now feels should have been done after the second race) and then we can try again.