Never Ceases To Amaze #2

Another thing that never ceases to amaze me is the extraordinary level of thinking the JRA trainers have. We've had the classic case of "here's a horse that absolutely hates dirt, so let's try her on dirt again." We've had numerous cases of blaming race-rust, then promptly sending the horse on another lengthy R&R session - the list of comical errors of judgement goes on and on beyond belief to be perfectly frank. Well, the latest is a plan to send Sophisticate off for an R&R session to reduce his tension. Would it not be better to get him used to being around other horses, and have him walking in and out of starting gates every day? He will come back, nicely relaxed, and at the first sign of a track, freak out again. I've come to the conclusion that the majority of JRA trainers are not trainers at all, they are simply business administrators with amazing facilities that they waste. The odd horse runs well at the start, but when the natural talent era ends, they haven't got a clue what to do. Working with horses, and more importantly, understanding them, is not a quantifiable thing - a piece of paper does not make someone qualified to hold a post when you are dealing with creatures that live and breathe. The same old textbook does not work with horses. You need feel, and that is something real trainers are born with, not something that can be learnt in a classroom...