Scary Word

If all goes well, Trovao should run in the Japan Dirt Derby, although one can sense that Arayama-sensei was aiming for the Tokyo Derby as the jewel in the NAR crown, and it almost feels like an anti-climax when you read his words - an event overshadowed by traitors and greed. Next year I guess all Tokyo Derby horses will be JRA nags masquerading as NAR runners! But at least they are his words, and not those of Northern Farm oppos, as is the case in most other reports - as usual...

Kealoha is apparently receiving the best of care at NF to overcome sore shins. Don't get me started! This $95,000 horse, which I've been paying hefty upkeep on for well over a year (plus a huge one-off insurance bill), is now a three-year old, and has run three times. The first race was in March, and then it won twice, taking its winnings up to $23,000 before it was sent away to Northern Farm. As yet, I have yet to see one horse come back from there in raceworthy condition, so I can't see that 23K figure going up very quickly, while all the time, the invoices keep coming in for "care," eating away at the winnings at a lot faster rate than they can possibly get topped up.

Magic Key is in a much worse position, costing $152,000 from the same crop, and has brought in $16,000 off two races before promptly being shipped off for six months of operation recovery (naturally whilst still paying bills). This was supposed to be a star horse, but was literally robbed on its debut, and sent to NF within days of being victorious second time out in a race with piss-poor winnings. No Classic trail for this one, then, when it should have been looking at that.

But you can see now why NAR folks need those big races, otherwise there's nothing to aim for, and certainly no chance of ever getting any kind of return on investment. And before people say it's not about the money, I agree, but the JRA folks certainly don't gatecrash NAR events for pride, and horse prices are set outrageously high in Japan because "the winnings potential is there." I'd rather have reasonable costs and smaller pots - it takes a lot of pressure off everyone. In NAR, it's higher and higher costs ($150K horses are becoming the norm) and small winnings anyway - painfully small if JRA keep stealing the prizes!

Pop Label (a juvenile champion) hasn't won since August 2013 following the same operation that Magic Key had, and Phosphorus (a five-time winner) is without a win since April 2015 for the same reason. Both are running, but one feels lucky to bring in enough to pay the monthly bill these days, so I think we can write Magic Key off as well! Another Door is a year younger than Magic Key, but cost the same, and came a distant fourth in its first and so far only race. Not impressed, and the winnings hardly cover a week's worth of keep, let alone start eating into the initial cost.

The $75,000 Chocolat Sucre (pulling in a measly $13,500 from a 1-0-1-2 record) has just had a throat operation, meaning a long while away from the track; Million Ways ($19,000 off a 2-0-1-5 record - a long way from the $115,000 cost) is walking wounded level; Shine Tiara is trying to make amends for a couple of poor runs (we'll see how it does tomorrow), and of the two NAR newcomers, one has to make its debut and the other is already resting with sore shins.

As for the JRA horses, only one of the seven is at the racing stable. Massabielle has spent three months in the last year at stables - the rest has been hanging around on holiday at NF, and is a G1 horse that now needs "retraining" having lost the plot completely from a lack of action. Belle Plage and Larressingle are about the only two that resemble racers, and both are now at Northern Farm! I think Rush Attack will be at NF forever, War Chronicle and Perfumer never do anything from one month to the next (to the point where I couldn't even remember Perfumer's name for a minute there), while Infinity Love was abandoned by the trainer we expected - and ultimately paid for - in mid-season and looks like it will get nothing at all back in winnings. Literally, nothing at all, that is, and then it will be sold on at a pittance at the same time as another catalogue full of overpriced wonders is shoved under your nose, as per the J'ai Un Reve case.

Compare this to the well-trained, strikingly cheaper English and Australian horses that run constantly (sometimes weekly), generally going up in value over the year instead of dropping down to next to nothing (or their true value) in Japan, plus coming without silly excuses if they happen to fail, and one can see that the bang-for-buck factor is hardly there at all in the Land Of The Rising Sun. If there were a lot more races (and ran straight), JRA stayed in JRA and NAR was allowed to operate with owners and worthy trainers rewarded for their faith in a financially-challenging environment instead of being robbed, and you could see real effort, that might tempt me back. It's not going to happen, though, for this is Japan, where 'change' is probably the scariest word in the dictionary...

PS. Shine Tiara was pretty pathetic, struggling not to come last at Kawasaki. That was her worst run so far, in a race she had every opportunity of winning, or at least coming in the top three; the next Kawasaki meeting is in the first week of July, so let's see what happens then. More bull from Northern Farm straight after the race regarding the JRA horses, with retirement being the obvious answer on Perfumer and War Chronicle - if they're that knackered, there's no way they can race, and these are not pets. Only when they've retired they can they become pets - until then, they have to earn their keep.

PPS. They kept it quiet, meaning that there's a porky in here - Pop Label is not running (another huge minus figure on the spreadsheets), and won't be until August apparently... if we're lucky. In other words, there's nearly as bad a record of non-runners in NAR as there is in JRA, and those that are running are doing nothing worthwhile on the track anyway! I honestly never thought I'd see that day.