Well, what can I say? Pop Label was simply not given the chance he deserves at TCK today. Mashima-kun was changed as the jockey at the last minute, although mysteriously the Sunday TC website doesn't reflect this, preferring instead to highlight the fact that his replacement jockey had been replaced by a third one! Seeing as Pop is a pain coming out of the gate, someone sitting on him for the first time will always be at a disadvantage, but in a 1200m race, the start is even more critical.
Sure enough, the initial dash was predictably disappointing, despite Pop clearing the gate reasonably well compared to what I was expecting, while Mashima-kun flew away on another Shadai/Sunday horse to get well into the money at the end, and Pop - who was better fancied, being second favourite - finished a distant eighth. Too many things that annoy me here, including the fact that it was too short a distance for a horse like this in the first place; there has obviously been no extra gate training, when this is the only real chink in the horse's armour; super training times never transferred to the track on race days; the multitude of jockey changes (raising the conflict of interest question again, which I'm far from happy about), and a disgraceful third corner that we'll be lucky to come away from without injury (100% the fault of the jockey, who rode like a twat and should have gone around the outside, using the horse's crazy finishing power). All told, it was like watching JRA 'racing' today, and that really saddens me! I honestly wish he'd been left at Funabashi, where the direction of the track might not have suited him perfectly, but at least he was being handled and trained properly there...
I think I should have kept working. It's a damned good job I bought that other Carrot horse before today - the feeling I'm left with after watching that last race would have changed the situation, that's for sure. Well, it's not Carrot Club's fault for what happened, and, as things stand, I'm glad we've got Lotus Blossom on the books. Shine Tiara is back at Kawasaki, by the way, and Million Ways is booked for a 1500m run at Funabashi on the 11th; Chocolat Sucre will also run there at some time during the same week.
PS. Single Cask has been retired, which is good. Next up, if we can get rid of War Chronicle (shuffled from pillar to post ever since her NAR campaign), Irish Harp (no confidence whatsoever in the trainer), Tenshinramman (ditto), Infinity Love (ditto) and Perfumer (ditto), then we'll have a decent line-up at last.
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