Much Of A Muchness

Again, Pop Label did nothing, as once more someone in their infinite wisdom decided to enter him in a 1400m race, when he really needs a minimum of a mile, and preferably 1700m or 1800m to allow his power to make up for the fact that he couldn't get out of a gate briskly to save his life. His fifth place won't even cover his monthly bills, which is a crazy situation for a horse that was a juvenile champion - a champion that was raced not once, but twice with an ailment, which is why we're where we are now. He hasn't won for nearly three years (32 months straight to be exact), and my suggestion would be bring him back to Hakaku-san's care at Funabashi or just retire him, for it's sad to keep watching him being pissed about like this.

My complete and utter downer on Japanese racing has had a knock-on effect, too. Questioning the value of my racing activities without rose-tinted spectacles clouding my judgement, I've decided not only to not buy anything from any of the Japanese club catalogues this year (or any year thereafter come to that), but I've also decided not to renew my Irish contracts either. As such, you'll see both Danielle's Journey and A Touch Of Sparkle have been moved off to the right-hand listing, as I couldn't face another heap of bills going straight into the off-season - it reminds me too much of the ridiculous NF situation over here. I would like to do something in Ireland at some stage in the future, but my mind needs resetting first. Time to thoroughly enjoy my racing again, and if that means England and Australia only, so be it...

PS. The trainer report is saying that Pop Label might be better over a mile. Well, it's a conclusion that has come far too late for my liking, like stating the obvious after the answer has been whispered in your ear for weeks on end - it certainly can't be used as an excuse when I've been screaming for more distance for months, no more than the inside gate draw (something cited in the report) when a horse won from there by 1.5 lengths only two races before, and this is why you get to the point that you can't even be bothered to go and watch your own nags any more. Phosphorus at Urawa might be interesting, and then there's Trovao in early June, but after that, switching on the TV to watch races is as much effort as I can justify with my mind the way it is right now - I certainly don't want to waste yet more time and money only to be constantly disappointed. Simply making up numbers without a fight is not racing, and there's way too much of that going on. If even half as much effort was put into getting decent results as there is withdrawing money from my bank account every month, we might get somewhere.