Three New Dates

Tenshinramman and War Chronicle are on the walking wounded list as usual. Apparently there's nothing wrong with them, but there always seems to be something or some excuse that doesn't allow them to run, so they just sit as semi-permanent fixtures at Northern Farm holiday resort. If that's the case, month after month, then they should be retired!

'Tenny' should be retiring next month anyway, but in all honesty should have been retired much earlier, when she could still hit the track with a bit of pride. As far as I'm concerned, the trainer has needlessly dragged out her 'in training' period for as long as possible in order to keep the income coming in, without even looking after the thing for months on end (it spends most of its time at NF), and had far too many 'last chances' for my liking; her last win was almost three years to the day ago, and she hasn't really looked like worrying anything but back-markers ever since. If she runs - and it is an if - before the end of next month, I guarantee she'll be in ultra-high tension mode, with her mind totally oblivious to the job in hand, and probably as tight as a pound of lard, because she can't train properly.

As for War Chronicle, apart from a mad burst at Nagoya (NAR) to get back into the JRA fold, she's hardly ran at all - twice in the best part of a year before the Nagoya campaign. I'd have rather she stayed in NAR - at least she might have run occasionally, and that's what racehorses are supposed to do!

We do have two JRA runners at the weekend, though, with Single Cask at Kokura on the 21st, and Rush Attack teaming up with Kosai Miura in an 1800m turf race at Tokyo-Fuchu on the same day. Not long after, Pop Label runs on the 25th at TCK in the 1200m C1-Class 10R. I'm not convinced a sprint is right for 'Pop', as he's always bloody awful getting out of the gate, but fingers crossed he can get back into winning form again - something long, long overdue...

PS. Rush Attack couldn't get a berth, because the race was oversubscribed. Now there's a shock! Didn't I just write about there not being anywhere near enough turf races? The Kokura run is on at least, but only because everyone is too lazy to travel so far south.