Approved!

My stake in all of the first batch of new Carrot Club yearlings has been officially approved, so I will start compiling their profiles over the next days. The eighth one I mentioned I was after is fully booked, so, if nothing else, I don't have to keep mulling it over. The 'jewel in the crown' this year is the colt sired by Montjeu, which will be the first one we'll take a look at, probably tomorrow. The next three days also see Louis and Sophie in competition, so expect some updates from that front as well...

Harp & A Waltz

We already knew about Irish Harp's race scheduled for the 28th at Hanshin (the 2R, with Yuichi Fukunaga in the saddle), but now Mephisto Waltz is being readied for action on the next day. If all goes well, he will run in the opener at Hanshin on the 29th with Yuji Hishida at the reins. Interestingly, the trainer has opted for 1800m on dirt this time around, while MW's first race was 1600m on turf. That debut was a disaster from a final placing point of view, but the trainer was well aware of the score. Since then, the horse's level of concentration is far better, and we should see a real racer in ten days time...

Blue Skies

After the strong typhoon that blew through yesterday, we awoke this morning to beautiful clear skies that were a magnificent shade of blue. With Louis gaining a day off from school, we decided to take the chance to get some saddle time in, as the boy has a big dressage competition with 'Jaguar' at the weekend, as well as a show-jumping event with 'Heart', while Sophie will be in the gymkhana section in-between. The cooler weather is certainly allowing 'Jaguar' to perform better - he looked ten years younger than he actually is as he stormed around Tokoro today. Let's hope he can do a good job at the weekend, and show these youngsters how it's done...