Another Carrot Disaster

Well, I guess that was our last JRA race for months, and it was about as successful as my last attempt at brain surgery. I can only hope that that was a warm-up for a proper race, setting War Chronicle up for a real challenge in a couple of weeks, for there was no effort made whatsoever today. I await the post-race excuses with a sense of dread, and knowing the usual bullshit JRA dish out, I'm half-expecting a Northern Farm spell, which would put me down to nothing running until the end of next month at the earliest - with 18 horses out here, that is totally unacceptable...

PS. Coming hot on the heals of my monthly bill, full of horses earning nothing towards their keep, the post-race report was as grey as possible. Both the jockey and trainer are saying maybe race-rust was the reason behind the lack of reaction at the end, and there's no surprise there. How many times have I said Japanese horses don't race often enough? About a million times, at least. There is talk of a bad leg, which doubtless means yet another holiday, when what the horse requires is proper training from a proper trainer and decent staff - every day spent at Northern Farm reduces the chances of that happening by a huge amount. The only way to get this horse working is to race it as often as possible. If yet another lengthy R&R session is called for, retirement is the only answer, as this particular nag has been on holiday or recovering from injury for most of its career. Like the majority of Carrot Club horses it seems, it's nothing more than a liability. Over-reaction? Okay, out of 13 Carrot horses, Shine Tiara is aiming (note the deliberate choice of the word 'aiming') to return to the track at the end of August, and then there's War Chronicle. And that's it - the rest are either resting up (seemingly indefinitely) or injured, and there's way too many on the latter list compared to the percentage of horses of similar ages injured that I run in England, Ireland and Australia. Despite what Japan's figures would lead you to believe, Thoroughbreds are not that fragile - at least not if they are bred correctly and then looked after in a way that suits the breed.