No Effort Seen

I'm not going to say "as expected," because Another Door's race on Thursday afternoon was even worse than I expected. To be perfectly honest, that was one of the worst all-round performances I've seen in a long time (and lord knows I've had more than enough experience of those in Japan recently), despite the supposedly better jockey. Indeed, having watched it again, it's no exaggeration to say that there wasn't one positive thing to come out of that race - unlike Lillyput's hard charge, it's difficult to see there was even any effort made in transforming this donkey into a racer. Had the horse cost 500,000 yen, it would have been disappointing, but at 16,000,000 yen, someone should be chopping their pinky off! It was an all too typical 'making up the numbers' entry. You'd have to be mad to keep buying horses at this price when they perform at this level...

Phosphorus, who runs (I hope that's the right word) on Friday, has been out 27 times, sporting a 5-4-3 record as a five-year old, which is an awful lot better than most will ever achieve. Yet he's still only brought in 9,500,000 yen, while the running costs for half of his career wipe that out completely, and we still haven't started eating into the purchase price and the hefty one-off insurance bill. Pop Label has pulled in about 12,000,000 yen from three wins, but only because he was a juvenile champion - he's just about covered most of his keep at that (you'd be a couple of million off - a figure that could buy a couple of nags in the UK!), but the 12,000,000 yen purchase price remains uncovered, and retirement looms. These are good horses and still can't approach paying for themselves, so what chance is there with the likes of Another Door, with two races and zero income? In conclusion, until the auction prices and cost of club horses (Shadai/Sunday in particular) start getting realistic, NAR is simply no longer viable as an enjoyable hobby when there are horses available for a fraction of the price abroad - horses that run more and break down a lot less.

PS. Once again, Phosphorus was incredibly disappointing. Things went well until the third corner, when he looked strong, holding the lead, but by the fourth he was starting to go backwards, losing by about nine lengths to come sixth and out of the money yet again! I really do despair. If it was up to me, I'd retire the bloody lot of them in Japan, with the exception of Trovao, for they're either has-beens, sickly or downright useless.

PPS. The post-race report hasn't cheered me up one iota. The jockey is saying he gave up, and that's why the result was poor, yet he whipped the hell out of 'Phos' on the home straight, so I don't believe that. In addition, the problem is apparently mental rather than physical, so a holiday is called for. Well, I'm sorry, sending a horse to Northern Farm is the worst thing I can think of. For the record, not that my opinion is worth much, I have literally asked for retirement. Had I been told he was going away for the summer because he doesn't like the heat, I might feel a bit better, but this barrage of BS is verging on nonsense! Another one down...