Sunday Misery

Well, I would say "told you so," but that isn't going to change the truly disgusting performance from J'ai Un Reve. If that was an improved horse, then retire it now, as no-one but me will have the balls to change the trainer, and the current one obviously has no interest in it whatsoever. The overwhelming question has to be why run a nag with Montjeu blood on dirt, when Hokkaido has European-style turf? Enough excuses. Somebody's head needs to roll...

The crap continued with Single Cask - a huge 22kg heavier than before, and four months out of circulation. Nothing wrong with the start, and with a straight run and no blocking involved, the awful result (14th) was once again down to a lack of conditioning and nothing else. I guess the horse shall be sent away for another long break now, when what it really needs is to be run. I honestly believe that we would have got better results today - on both occasions - if my 14-year old boy had trained the horses for a month, and my 12-year old daughter had been the jockey. Disgraceful.

PS. As expected, Single Cask will now go on holiday, when what it needs is more outings and some serious training. It couldn't have put on more weight if you'd have fed it on Big Macs, and now the plan is to let it gain more! At least the answer to why foreign trainers are not allowed in JRA has been answered - most of the existing ones would be out of business in no time. Judging by the results obtained by J'ai Un Reve, the Ikee outfit would be one of the first to go. He's been retired - again, as expected. I could a good living as a fortune teller.

Next retirements we can expect are War Chronicle (that should have been retired earlier, in reality), Kalliopeia and Eclat De Reve, which will knock a bit of a hole in the JRA list. Single Cask can go, too, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not sure where we stand with Perfumer to be honest. Granted, he won a race, but it was an NAR event, and he's registered as a JRA nag - I'm not certain if that counts as a way of keeping him in the game? 

PPS. Louis is quite sure that Perfumer is safe, as it was a JRA/NAR race, hence the lack of panic in getting him out again. If that option was open, then why wasn't it used for J'ai Un Reve as soon as the decision to try a dirt race was taken?