Rush Attack V1

Courtesy Carrot Club

Rush Attack has always threatened to be a winner, but until today has never been able to claim the victor's spoils. I'm happy to say that not only was it a win at Sapporo, it was a truly impressive one, as he led the 2000m turf race from start to finish in a superb display of strength, taking on the pace and holding off his rivals at the end with real style. For sure, he slowed up a bit just before the post, but held off the second-placed nag that was carrying a significant 5kg less (in fact, it was the only horse in the top eight to carry top weight), and beat the favourite by a decent margin, too. Kosei Miura ultimately timed his run to perfection. Interestingly, looking at the Carrot Club homepage, the two most recent winners it always shows are Trovao and Rush Attack! 32 wins now, and counting...

More Progress

I woke up this morning to find that Masterson had ran well in the 2:50 at Brighton yesterday. Teaming up with Paddy Pilley, he came a fine second - a fair bit behind the firm favourite, but a good way ahead of the third-placed nag. This will allow a fair handicap to be applied to the horse, whilst giving us a pleasing result at the same time.

After Rush Attack runs on the 8th at Sapporo in a 2000m turf race with Kosei Miura in the saddle, we have plenty more UK action coming up, with Blacklister entered for the 7:20 at Windsor on the 10th, or the 2:50 at Salisbury on the 12th - both races being over a mile. Salisbury looks the most likely.

Gandvik was pulled out of the Haydock race on the 6th, but is being lined up for the six-furlong 5:30 at Ffos Las on the 11th instead, or maybe the 2:20 at Salisbury on the following day, also over 6f; the 2:25 at Salisbury on the 13th has also been added as a possibility. Back to Japan after that, with Beat The Boarder at TCK on the 14th, and Irish Harp in JRA action on either the 15th or 16th.

PS. The Ffos Las race has been abandoned, leaving one of the two Salisbury dates for Gandvik, while Blacklister picked up a bruised foot in training so will now miss out on racing this week.

Trovao V1

Courtesy Carrot Club

Trovao ran a super race at Monbetsu on the 5th, with Kanichiro Fujii making a great recovery from a poor start to take the victor's laurels with ease. Granted, Trovao was the favourite of the 12 runners, but being the favourite and performing like one are two different things, as we saw with War Chronicle the other day. I think we can safely say that this one has a future. Now all we need is Million Ways to come through on either the 12th (1500m) or 19th (1200m), and we have some fresh NAR challengers in the armoury. On the subject of NAR, Beat The Boarder is due to run at TCK on the 14th in the 1500m C3 third race, and if she can run like she did in her last outing, she has every chance of finishing in the top three.

Mixed Middlin'

War Chronicle ran a stinker in her comeback race yesterday, to the point where - especially having started as favourite - she was so disappointing I don't even want to talk about it! A lot of the bad run can be put down to race-rust, so hopefully she will run again in the very near future, or you may as well retire her now...

Today, Eclat De Reve ran an awful race, with the jockey as much to blame as the horse's condition from what I saw, giving the nag no chance to shine whatsoever - he was in the wrong kind of position from start to finish. But it was extremely pleasing to see Tenshinramman not only in action, but in the kind of form that made her such a special horse in her early days. I don't think I have seen her run like that since she was in the Classic race qualifiers as a youngster - truly inspiring! As a result, her fourth place (0.1 seconds off the winner) may well allow her a bit of a reprieve, as I for one will be happy to support another few runs rather than call for retirement, which was certainly the option foremost in my mind before this afternoon's performance.

In England, Masterson was fifth, doing well until he was blocked a couple of furlongs from the post. He was cruised home after that to allow the fella to fight another day. Ultimately, he performed a lot better than the punters thought he would, and at this stage (at least with the horses outside Japan, where we have to see early victories to survive another year), the learning process and getting home safely is the most important thing. He should be out again in two or three weeks, while Blacklister is in training again after a pulled muscle (nothing serious), and Lillyput - the third Box 41 horse - should be joining him soon after she picked up a knobbly knee a bit back.