Another Double Drat...

The last blog entry raised the question about whether we'd get to see a perfect Harmony? The answer came this morning, with her as out-of-tune as the average K-Pop singer. In fact, she was almost as bad as a J-Pop one, and that really is saying something! The veteran jockey is suggesting everything went well, and apparently the sand didn't bother her, so why she had such a bad result (ninth) is something we can only speculate about. In my opinion, unless the statement on the sand has been added to parry a bombardment of complaints given her previous dirt runs, she's simply not a racehorse. Period. At the end of the day, practice times mean nothing - it is the performance on the track that counts for a horse to be able to be called a racehorse, and there she falls down badly...

Courtesy Townsville Turf Club

There was a ninth also for Pretty Gully (pictured) in Australia, who simply wasn't in the mood according to
the jockey. As a result, she'll be shipped off for a well-deserved R&R session now, as she's had a hard schedule recently - and I mean hard, not like JRA's definition of the term. Poor Jo, Pretty Gully's trainer, certainly had a bad day at the office today, so I'm sure she'll be looking for some sweet revenge in the New Year. Me, too!

PS. While Pretty Gully has an excuse for her lacklustre run, the trainer's report on Harmony Fair gave us no firm conclusions. Yes, turf would be better. No kidding! But finding a race in the overly-limited JRA calendar is another thing. If something can't be found soon, it will be Spring before she runs again, and personally, that just seems like a waste of time and money keeping her on the off-chance of a fluke. Run her ASAP, while she still realizes what a race is all about, and if she fails again, she has to go.