Drought

Just before I go back to work, having shifted a ton - maybe more - of snow, I thought I'd check on something that had been bugging me during the night. A friend of mine that buys horses from a rival club of similar size in Japan is clocking up wins at a staggering rate, and it seemed like a long time since I'd last had anything to celebrate. I'd noted a rather dry spell on the Carrot Club horses, and actually, looking into the numbers properly, it's more like a drought of biblical proportions.

From 15 horses currently in training, plus another five that I'd lost by the end of last autumn due to one thing and another (injuries and club policy), my last JRA win came in August 2013. That was also my last top three spot! Since then, results have been ranging somewhere between awful and disgusting, with the promise shown in some of the youngsters turning out to be a farce. A sixth for Tenshinramman is hardly reason to jump up and down with joy given the ferocious speed of this animal (a mate in the States even named his highly-tuned 911 after her!), and I'm certainly not buying Mephisto Waltz's performance as "an improvement" - a momentary glimmer of hope does not alter the fact that 14th was its lowest finish to date. It's all very well being positive in reports, but this level of flowery writing is more annoying than comforting, especially when you have to look at similar bullshit all the while.

On the local racing front, my last NAR win with Carrot Club was in October, and fifth has been the best from that horse since then. Four months of a dry spell is a long time, and six months - as with the JRA horses - is an eternity. I still pat my friend on the back when he wins with one of his nags, but it's getting harder and harder to stomach it, especially when you know half of the horses you have are not performing anywhere near their potential...