The 2013 Crop #2: No.192

Courtesy Sunday TC

This second horse - for now called No.192, for he won't be named for a few months yet - should also be based at Funabashi, although it will probably start its career in Hokkaido if it's an early riser.

Like No.187, he has impeccable bloodlines, being sired by Kane Hekili, who won virtually everything there was to win in NAR circles, clocking up 12 wins from 23 starts. Kane Hekili is by Fuji Kiseki, who was an undefeated two-year old champion, out of Life Out There, an unraced broodmare who brings together Deputy Minister and Mr Prospector blood.

On the dam side, we have Beyond My Reach as the mother. Now although she was far from remarkable as a racer herself (0-0-0-7), she does boast Wild Rush as her father (featured in the last profile), and She's Princess as her mother. The latter picked up a 2-4-1 record from nine starts, and carries Native Dancer and The Minstrel DNA, the latter being a real bonus as far as I'm concerned.

The 2013 Crop #1: No.187

Courtesy Sunday TC

As this horse has yet to be named, for now, we'll refer to her as No.187, which is her Sunday Thoroughbred Club catalogue number. Like the Vermilion kid, this one was also heavily oversubscribed, so I feel very lucky to have got a share in this particular filly.

Why was she so popular? Well, there was a certain horse we waved goodbye to the other day called Clave Secreta. She had won 12 races when she retired, including a good few big ones, and was a true heroine in NAR circles. No.187 is a full sister to Clave, meaning she has the same mother and father...

Her sire is Wild Rush, an American-registered horse with G1 wins in amongst his eight total victories. He was fathered by Wild Again, with an 8-7-4 record, and a win in the Breeders' Cup Classic behind him. In his bloodlines, we have Icecapade (13 wins), who was out of Shenanigans, the mother of Ruffian, and Khaled in the dam line - the Aga Khan's horse that sired Swaps. On Wild Rush's dam side, we have Rose Park (4-3-10) by multiple G1 winner, Plugged Nickle, out of Hardship. She, like her mother before her, had a strong record (ten wins between them), and carried on the DNA of Drone, who had four wins from four starts and became an excellent broodmare sire, or BMS.

The dam of No.187 is Secret Room, who picked up a 2-4-3 record from 24 JRA starts. Her father was Taiki Shuttle - a horse that won all manner of sprint races in Japan, and is by the unbeaten Devil's Bag, a combination of fiery Halo (Hail To Reason) DNA, and that of Herbager, who won the French Derby. There is also a trace of Nijinsky blood via Caerleon and Welsh Muffin, the latter seeming to crop up quite often in the Long family line-up. Secret Room's mother was G3 runner Ribot's Secret (I love that name!) by Prince Khalid Abdullah's famous horse, Danehill, while Damascus is also brought into the equation - a US Hall of Fame member that won 21 races, bagging the Preakness and Belmont Stakes along the way, but only managing a third place in the Kentucky Derby and narrowly missing out on the Triple Crown as a result.

This beauty will eventually make her way to Funabashi, and while there's no guarantees, if she's only half as good as Clave was, I shall be a happy bunny...

Friday Results

River Spirit came home in third at Warwick, which keeps her record simmering away nicely - a 1-1-1-3 statistic is definitely something to build on. There is still plenty of potential is this little lady, and being a part of the Channon family enterprise is a real pleasure regardless of what happens on the track - the racing is almost incidental when the approach is fun from the off, even though the professionalism shows through as soon as the chips are down.

Porthos Du Vallon was well fancied, but screwed up badly in Beverley, making the Musselburgh result seem fantastic by comparison. The jumps schooling was supposed to resume on Monday with a Junior Hurdles race planned by the end of the month. However, a horse that finishes seven lengths down in a flat mile is going to struggle jumping over twice that distance, so I doubt very much whether it will ever do what it was specifically bought for. No fun attached to this one either, with money seemingly being the driving force, so a bad investment all-round.

On the subject of bad investments, Dinner Bell runs in the JRA race at Fukushima tomorrow. Teaming up with Keita Ban, they compete in the second race of the day (1200m turf). With a few half-decent nags in there against them, it's ironic that I'm looking forward to the retirement notice as much as the result itself - at least the cringing and unnecessary drain on finances will stop. After that, ditch Glint Moment before it races and the list at the foot of the page starts to look reasonable...

Two Newcomers

While Sophie and Louis have been riding almost as much as usual (I simply haven't been taking many pictures of late), rain stopped play today. Not to worry - there's always the weekend. Notwithstanding, the atmosphere in the house has been brightened by the news of two new NAR racehorses to add to the  list at the bottom of this page, including the full sister of Clave Secreta. This goes a long way towards making up for the loss of the Vermilion kid, with the second horse being another strong contender, sired by Kane Hekili with more Wild Rush blood on the dam side. I'll add them both along with profiles as soon as I get five minutes. For a change, I actually feel like working, and one has to strike while the iron is hot!

English Parlay

In an attempt to try and brighten the atmosphere a little, let's have a look at what we have running in England tomorrow. River Spirit will race at Warwick in the 4:20, which is down as the Warwick Racecourse Nursery Handicap Stakes. Sam Hitchcott takes up the reins at what is my local track if I was back in the UK - a track that ranks as one of the oldest in the country.

As the clock ticks on a bit more, taking us into the evening, Porthos Du Vallon and Jason Hart team up at Beverley - this northern track also having around 300 years of history attached to it. They compete in the 8:00 race, which is the Swan Industrial Drives Handicap. Good luck to them both!

RIP Monsoon Trough

The news is official now, confirming what was frankly expected - Monsoon Trough has had to be put to sleep, as she suddenly went down with wobbler syndrome. This morning, she couldn't get up by herself, and that is when a line has to be drawn. It seems amazing that she should have had her race debut yesterday evening, and instead, here we are mourning her loss. RIP little lady...

Wednesday Warbles

Regarding the JRA horses, Dinner Bell is indeed lined up for the 1200m turf race at Fukushima on the 6th, and Joyful Step is due to run within the next couple of weeks. Miracle Rouge has gone on holiday, although the statement on future race timing is an odd one: "If summer is too hard on her, we can look at the autumn." But surely she will have to retire if she hasn't won by the end of summer? At least a few of the other trainers are realizing that time is running out, with True Motion moving in the right direction, and Belle Plage following Irish Harp's lead by being shipped off to Hakodate to try a new campaign in Hokkaido. As for Glint Moment, I still can't believe it's only just starting its training programme this late in the season.

On the NAR front, Phos-kun (Shadai TC) should be out at the next Funabashi meeting, while Beat The Border (Sunday TC) is scheduled to run at TCK again at the end of the month. Things don't look so good with Monsoon Trough, though, and I just keep waiting for news to come through. That long-awaited debut that I'd been praying for now seems so trivial in the circumstances...

More Doom & Gloom

Just checking on how the odds were looking on Monsoon Trough, and was shocked to find that she has picked up a problem on the morning of her debut! Can you believe it? Actually, a second horse due to run in the same race has also been withdrawn, which doesn't bode well. Apparently, this is quite a bad scenario in the case of MT, with Wobbler Syndrome cited, so I can only hope that a decision is made quickly on her future, as yet another horse in long-term rehabilitation is costly and no fun whatsoever. For instance, Pop Label has been out for eight months now, and it will probably be another month before he makes a comeback - if we're lucky. At least MT hasn't raced as yet, so the insurance should cover most of her bills, whereas PL just keeps draining funds for no return.

So from one Vermilion kid in training and one hopeful, it suddenly looks like I'm left with nothing, as securing the Vermilion foal I wanted this year is seemingly out of the question due to a heavy oversubscription. It now looks like I shall be without the Vermilion blood I've hankered after for two years at least. It's doubly annoying when you get within six hours of a race debut to be left in that situation...

Downhill

Just going through the various Carrot Club reports issued over the last couple of days, and, with the notable exception of Irish Harp's, we can see the usual selection of cut and paste jottings that centre on the word treadmill - as is all too often the case, there's very little of substance, and even less worth passing on. Whether the remaining five will have anything in them to set the world alight, I don't know. Doubtful anyway...

So, from 18 Carrot Club horses, the only one that is lined up to run any time soon is Dinner Bell, and that doesn't even deserve to be called a horse, let alone a Thoroughbred. In fact, I think most donkeys would be pissed off at being compared to something so slow. As such, we shall await the verdict on Irish Harp, otherwise there's nothing happening on the JRA front whatsoever.

There's such a long gap between most of them running, you almost forget you have them, except for when the bill arrives each month. When it comes to value for money, Irish Harp and Single Cask are about the only Carrot/JRA horses to have provided any kind of bang for the buck since Tenshinramman's peak, and that was a long, long time ago. Oh, apparently, she's still not on holiday, even though it's been four-and-a-half weeks since she last raced and there isn't the slightest whiff of a new entry being made. I can imagine the post-race report now, with a quote from 'The JRA Bumper Book Of Excuses' and the trainer being shocked she was so highly-strung in the paddock. In these circles, BS does not stand for Bridgestone.

Lucky Girl?

Courtesy Zimbio.com

Well, for all my complaints about JRA trainers, I take my hat off to Naosuke Sugai (pictured). With Irish Harp, he has given me and her fellow owners a real value-for-money package. He has thought of numerous different ways of making her shine, and had no less than ten attempts at getting her to win - remarkable when one thinks the average Carrot Club horse runs three or four times if you're lucky (regardless of potential), and then gets retired, more often than not because of glaring failings in the system and failings in those being paid to look after our interests rather than any major problem with the horse itself. Mr Sugai, you've earned yourself a fan in an era where I'd have thought it impossible for me to warm to anything to do with JRA. To feel the same disappointment as we did after the last race is admirable, as most of the trainers don't give a toss as long as the gravy train keeps moving. To even think of giving Irish Harp chance number 11 has frankly left me in shock. I'm so glad to see that pride and honour still have a place in a part of the industry where only money seems to count, and club people are simply used as shunned pawns to keep funds in motion. Sir, you have my utmost respect, and I wish you luck whatever happens in the future...

Monsoon Weather

Monsoon Trough is definitely going to run on Wednesday (2nd July) in the 1700m Fresh Challenge race at Monbetsu. This is the 5R, just before 5pm, and there are eight horses entered. Wearing no.2, our girl - the only filly in the race - will be handled by the highly-experienced Fuyuki Igarashi, who rode Agua De Vida in her early days. We wish them both luck in this important debut race!

Meanwhile, in Britain, hopefully River Spirit will run in the 4:20 at Warwick on the 4th July, and Porthos Du Vallon should be out at Beverley on the same day. Race tactics are to be revised to suit Porthos' cheek pieces, and hopefully the jockey's saddle will stay where it's supposed to this time, as it slipped quite badly during the last race.

Carrot Catastrophe

Further comments made after the race only serve to put nails in Miracle Rouge's coffin, so to speak. It has been said that her dark colour doesn't help in the heat, but it's only going to get a lot hotter over the next couple of months, so using that as an excuse now (it was only 23 degrees C in Tokyo at 1pm) definitely puts a limit on running her sensibly during the height of summer, right? The average temperature is 30-31 degrees C in July and August, and the Carrot Club 'season' will be over then. As for the tension problem - well, like most of the JRA horses, she doesn't see a racetrack often enough, and with the decision being made to send her off for an R&R session, that isn't going to help, as it's a mental reaction similar to what a man feels before a big fight. It doesn't matter what a horse is like in training if it falls to pieces in the paddock. With nothing but feeble excuses and poor results being banded about, it would be best to just retire the poor thing now and be finished, for scrabbling around at the back of the field is doing no-one any good.

I noticed also that Irish Harp has been shipped off for an R&R session as well, which is hardly a good sign. There's still a bit of Hakodate racing to go, and Sapporo follows, so she may still have one more chance, but I wouldn't bank on it. No cigar after ten races (which is more than Harmony Fair has had, and only one less than Tenshinramman, both from a year earlier), and starting as favourite in the last two outings to boot, points to her being one of those horses that simply doesn't have what it takes to win. It will be interesting to see where she gets sent in the next week or so.