CAUB III

As expected, Larressingle has been shipped off to Northern Farm, which basically means its career is as good as finished. There are the usual excuses of being tired, but there's no way on earth that a three-year old Thoroughbred is 'tired' after six races in seven months - look at Blacklister! I'm disappointed more than anything because I at least expected a bit of honesty from Ogata-sensei, as I sincerely felt he was better than the other JRA lot - why not just say the space was needed for a new horse? I'm sure there was pressure to throw in the towel after twice the normal level of entries for a horse that hasn't won, and there must have been relief in some quarters that it didn't bring in money for the first time, providing the perfect excuse for it to be shipped off to spread the costly keeping fees around the boys. If my experience of NF so far (which is naturally very, very extensive by now) is anything to go by, the "overhaul" will result in a nag that comes back months later absolutely useless, fails (doubtless, given a lack of real training and what will almost certainly be an unsuitable race after the last result), and ends up at NF again to be 'retrained'. As far as I'm concerned, you may as well retire the horse now and save us all the heartache and cash, for if it doesn't win, it will be sold anyway according to club rules, despite being a damned good pony, and far better than many that get kept due to one lucky or unworthy victory. Oh, but then NF wouldn't get their cut, and we can't have that, can we? Meanwhile, Rush Attack is being slated for a return to racing in autumn, which I'll believe when I see it.

Courtesy Townsville Turf Club

As we stand now, nine of my 13 Carrot horses (six of the seven JRA 'runners') are at Northern Farm for God knows how long, as well as three of my five Shadai nags (all NAR) - a pathetic situation that must surely serve as a wake-up call for even the most ardent supporter of the game out here. Although listed as being at the stable, Million Ways is also out of training, by the way (expected to be "walking" next week), so one can only conclude that Japanese racing - or what they have the audacity to call racing - has to be the worst value-for-money in the world.

PS. Raining Dollars (right, aka 'Ted') came a strong third in Townsville, Australia, and will run again next week over 1200m. No signs of tiredness, even after being crashed into the barriers a couple of weeks back. Strange isn't it, that only Japanese horses get so tired? On saying that, 'Bugatti' is a Japanese Thoroughbred, and today, after one day without training, he was running and kicking out his legs at all angles in the exercise ring, desperate to work off built-up tension - to the point, as it happens, that he had to go into the ring before tacking up, because he was that mad. As I said, it's all very strange. Or pure bull, of course...