Homecoming

Belle Plage has now officially been booked for the 2000m 7R turf race at Tokyo on the 12th. Vertice's debut has been delayed from mid-November to late-November, so it will be interesting to see what that extra time brings in terms of results... if anything. And, at last, Phosphorus is back at Funabashi, but it has been let get so overweight while it was away, I can't see a worthwhile comeback any time soon. Indeed, he will have to improve a lot to give anything worthwhile full-stop. For now, at least, it's where it belongs.

PS. Another awful performance from Belle Plage, and it can't be blamed on the gate draw (outside again, incidentally!), for it would have been a poor result whichever gate we'd got. What was that long break for? All it did was kill the nag's desire to race, as is usually the case, but still the trainers do it to keep NF in clover. What was the extra 'training' for after the disastrous comeback? Beer money, probably, for it definitely didn't improve the horse's performance. What the hell are we paying for? That one I can't answer, because I can't figure out what we get of any value. Retire it, and let the horse jog around fields at its leisure, instead of jogging around a track once in a blue moon and wasting our time and money. It's certainly not a racehorse any more, and hasn't been for a year now... 

PPS. One tiny bit of good news from Carrot Club - and there hasn't been much of that to report of late - is that Lotus Blossom has escaped NF, now that its shareholders have been bled dry. A test is scheduled for December, with a January debut being planned. Next race is The Jazz Singer jumping at Navan tomorrow, with Pop Label (a Sunday TC horse with a lot to prove) on the 18th, and then we have Trovao (Carrot Club) a couple of days later on the 20th.