Wasted Opportunity

As usual, I had to keep scrolling the page seemingly forever to find a typical gate draw - gate 15 out of 16 berths, which frankly happens far too often to me to be a coincidence. So, Belle Plage was already at a disadvantage, with what looked like the strongest rivals each finding inside spots from which to start. Despite that, though, she started as a firm favourite.

Ultimately, the start was superb - it was the rest of the race that was a disappointment. As it happens, the second-placed nag was the outside gate starter, although it has to be said that carrying a full six kilos less was a huge advantage, while the winner started from gate 12, so the starting position can't be used as an excuse, much as I'd like to use it. Unfortunately, the jockey allowed himself to get blocked in just as the finishing straight came into sight, and, as a result, she was sixth, just 0.3 seconds and less than two lengths down on the winner. While number 10 finished a lot stronger at the end, it wasn't the horse's fault - as far as I'm concerned, the failure lies firmly with the jockey this time around, as poor positioning delayed the run-in. But whichever way you look at it, my 29th win seems a long way off.

Across the Pacific, American Pharoah (the spelling miss is correct, by the way) has captured the US Triple Crown - the first horse to do so since Affirmed in 1978. The jockey for Affirmed was Stevie Cauthen, of course, who made quite an impact on the UK racing scene when I was a lad, and even had a stint in Japan thanks to the late, great Kawashima-sensei.

PS. The jockey is saying Belle Plage wasn't so happy with the sand in her face (ironic, given her name!), but the opportunity was there to go further forward instead of hanging back, so I would still say Yoshida was at fault for putting himself in a bad run-in position at the end of the day. On saying that, if the sand was a factor, that problem should have been established and accounted for long before a dirt race was even considered - it's starting to sound like a Harmony Fair scenario, except she's already won on dirt twice before, but with Katsuura-san in the saddle! Something smells. 'Wasted Opportunity' is a politically correct title - what I'm really thinking is way too rude to put up on here. The trainer saw things pretty much as I did, incidentally, adding that we've lost priority status along the way. Tosaki-kun, please...