As predicted, Pop Label lost valuable lengths at the gate, and was then held back too long. Forced around the outside due to the poxy gate draw - again! - it all proved too much against proper sprinters. A third place has to be considered a bitter disappointment for a horse of this level, who is undoubtedly capable of much better things, but the result is hardly surprising in my eyes given the scenario he was exposed to. I thought he looked a bit porky, too, with his weight a good 10-15kg up on his Funabashi days.
Anyway, despite having the favourite on numerous occasions, I've not had a Shadai TC/Sunday TC winner in almost ten months - Phosphorus was the last on 2nd April 2015, which seems like an eternity ago. We've got four runners at Funabashi next week, including Phos-kun (hopefully back in form after a long lay-off), and Magic Key, who if he's allowed to run properly should be even more devastating than any of the other NAR horses we have a stake in - good stuff in the stables notwithstanding. Maybe we should have had five running at Funabashi, for Pop Label has not been able to capitalize on the expected benefit stemming from the regular use of a clockwise track, and things might have been completely different over these last few weeks if he'd have stayed where he was. Who knows? I do know, however, that I will be looking for a run of wins - and very soon - otherwise the huge purchase price and running costs of Shadai horses just doesn't make sense...
PS. The trainer wants to try another 1200m race, when hopefully we won't get the outside gate. Ummm. We'll see. But I don't think it will make any difference to be honest, as he simply can't clear the stalls quickly enough. Meanwhile, Danielle's Journey is supposed to be out with Andrew Lynch on Sunday, and Raining Dollars has a trial run Down Under on Monday. Next up after that is a quartet of Funabashi runners towards the end of the week, with Blacklister entered at Wolverhampton on Friday...
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