Murdered

Larressingle was given gate 17 in Tokyo, which was hardly the most promising of starts for us, even before the off - someone is definitely taking the mickey! Notwithstanding, the horse was still the hot favourite in the early betting (at 1.9), so we had a right to at least expect a top three finish in a field with only a few worthy rivals. Anyway, a rough start was followed by a severe hold-up caused by a Shadai TC nag on the back straight, and the fast pace forced by a runaway pony left no chance to recover. The ninth place has to be considered incredibly disappointing in a number of ways, but it is the future that concerns me more - due to the stupid way JRA works, you can bet Larressingle's next race will be over something totally unsuitable, and a horse best suited to a mile on turf will probably end up doing 2000m on dirt due to the overwhelming lack of berths in relation to the number of horses in training. We'll just have to wait and see, but I guess we'll have to put up with a long, unnecessary holiday first. A wasted outing...