Friday, June 27, 2014

Harpooned

Porthos Du Vallon was fourth at Musselburgh on Friday, quite a long way off the pace in the closing stages unfortunately, despite starting as pre-race favourite. Well, as I said, we'll put this one down to experience...

With the time difference, the result from the UK came through this morning as far as I'm concerned. As such, from a Japanese point of view, Irish Harp raced on the same day! As many of you will know, this filly was my first pick from the Carrot Club 2011 crop, so I've always followed her progress with greater interest than the others. Ryoya Kozaki was in the saddle again, as per Irish Harp's last outing, but he blew it this time and they struggled from the off. Whether she was marked, being the favourite, I don't know. What I do know is that ninth is incredibly disappointing. She's been given more chances than any other Carrot horse by a long way, and I can't honestly see her being given another after today, especially as she was so far off the pace of the winner. I shall be sad to see her go, for other than Single Cask, she's about the only Carrot horse of that year worth keeping - most have already fallen by the wayside, and Belle Plage seems to have lost the plot.

So, two favourites, and two dramatic failures so far this weekend. Looks like my run of victories has well and truly finished, unless Monsoon Trough can pull something out of the bag on Wednesday, for I very much doubt whether Miracle Rouge (ridden by Takuma Ito) will be able to do any good in tomorrow's 7R at Tokyo-Fuchu. With so much bad news and needless stress floating around the house at the moment, today's result is about as welcome as a bite from Luis Suarez!

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