Shocked? Not Really...

Absolutely nothing to report on the racing front of any significance, although Harmony Fair's preferred next race is heavily oversubscribed, so I guess she'll now miss the perfect opportunity to prove herself, sit doing nothing for weeks, probably at a holiday camp, and then return to the tracks as a novice again - it's a waste of shareholders' money and a horse's potential. Still left wondering when on Earth the JRA people will begin to realize the system simply doesn't work? Unless you're looking at it from a civil service point of view, of course, or the eyes of an accountant, and then it works perfectly!

The situation highlights something I wrote to a friend in the racing game Down Under not so long ago, after yet another disastrous performance. Basically, I noted that the gap between good English trainers and the majority of those out here is wider than the Atlantic Ocean. By and large, the Japanese trainers are like politicians - family background counts for 80% of entry criteria, and once you're in, you're set for life, regardless of ability. Although there are some good ones, and a handful of really good ones, I don't think half of them know the slightest thing beyond passing a paper test, although, in all fairness, the system (JRA restricts the number of races each year) certainly doesn't help. At least in England, you can book maybe three races in a week, each at an ideal distance, then choose which is best in view of the weather and competition. Here, they just stick a horse in wherever there's an all-too-rare slot. If a horse likes fast ground, tough luck that it's been raining hard for a week, because if you don't run it on the booked date, the distance option goes. I had one trainer state one of mine hated dirt after a single attempt, but it's next race was dirt anyway, simply because there were no turf races available. The system is pathetic - good horses being wasted, because there's too many of them in the country and nowhere near enough races to cater for their numbers. The simple maths should tell people that JRA isn't going to work in terms of Thoroughbred development, only in terms of making obscene amounts of money for the chosen few...

So, why have I still got shares in so many JRA horses? Well, most of them were bought before I realized the system was so out of synch - it all looks sweet from the viewpoint of a pure spectator, full of glitz and glamour and nice tracks. Then, having bought into an NAR horse, a couple of others in the catalogue were too tempting for the boy and I to look the other way - one for bloodlines, the other to support a trainer who has done well with Belle Plage. There won't be any more, though. I look forward to going back to enjoying JRA as nothing more than an enthusiast, with no financial interest or deep thoughts on what's going on. Yes, I really did enjoy it once, which is why I wanted to get more involved! Meanwhile, thank God for the beauty of NAR racing, otherwise I'd be going insane while I'm patiently waiting for my JRA era to end.