Hehehe

The JRA jokes continue this morning with the announcement that 49 horses are vying for 16 gate berths in Harmony Fair's race, which was planned for the 13th. It makes a mockery of the system when yesterday 16 gates were available in one GII race, and only eight horses ran! Indeed, if you look at the four-year old races, there were plenty of slots available, but only in the longer distances, which indicates a general lack of conditioning in JRA steeds if the trainers only ever want to tackle shorter distances with them. There were also gates available in a few three-year old races, but the qualifying money eliminates so many. Question: How can horses win enough money and gain experience if they can't race? Then you get the same batch competing against each other, and one strong one stands out as being something special, when in fact they are simply the best of a bad bunch. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - not enough races!