Quisquiliae

Once again, my Carrot Club reports look like an advert for Northern Farm, as virtually every animal I have a stake in seems to have NF against it, which is frankly pathetic considering this is supposed to be a racing organisation - 'NF' and 'treadmill' have been a constant feature in my weekly reports for far too long now! In fact, nothing has changed for weeks, with only the dates being different compared to the picture I published on the 18th. What's more, there doesn't look like any change in the situation any time soon, with Larressingle now apparently having a back problem that may see it go into an even deeper holiday mode than the one it's in now. In reality, with the end of the season for cutting off non-winners being as close as it is, and no chance of a decent, suitable race to come, it would make more sense to throw in the towel now, while giving up on Rush Attack would be an obvious move if there was any thought whatsoever for the members. The whole JRA thing is basically a bad joke, with only Infinity Love running amongst seven nags - a horse that has come tenth in the best of its three races. Sadly, the NAR scene is catching up on the joke status far too quickly for my liking, with Million Ways off, Lotus Blossom and Chocolat Sucre resting, and others totally out of form. Can Trovao save the day? We'll find out soon enough.

PS. Just checked on the 3yo Carrot horses as a whole, and of 72 JRA nags, two have retired, 24 are at racing stables (one assumes awaiting a run), one is at Green Wood on holiday, and the rest (45) are all at Northern Farm! As for the 4yo horses, just 11 of the 44 are at racing stables, with two at different R&R spots, meaning 31 (70%) are at NF. Conclusive proof there are too many horses for the races and stable places available, begging the question why time and money are being spent on the likes of Rush Attack.

I was also looking at the Deep Impact kids to see if they offered anything like the value people want us to believe they hold: One, stationed with Ikee, cost 120,000,000 yen and ran twice (winning both races to give 17,300,000 yen) and has been off with a bad foot since its last run in January; one 50,000,000 yen beast has run four times and won twice to give 32,310,000 yen (promising); one at 44,000,000 yen filly has done extremely well to bring in 233,330,000 yen (the dam happened to be a two-time G1 winner, although I'm sure no-one bothered looking beyond the 'Deep wins again' headlines); another 50,000,000 yen one has won 7,000,000 yen after three races; a 70,000,000 yen horse has brought in 6,200,000 yen off four races; a filly at 36,000,000 yen a decent 18,880,000 yen, and a final one at the same price, a whopping 5,800,000 yen off three races. Draw your own conclusions...

PPS. No idea on Infinity Love's next race, but at least the horse is staying at the stables, which is something. Due to the distinct lack of races in JRA, the trainer will have to take whatever comes, and the distance will probably go up to 2000m for the next outing. I think 1800m would be better, but it's getting a berth in the gate that's the problem - you can see how the system works against proper training! Failure in the next race will make it difficult for the nag to continue, of course, although there may be one more chance after that...