More Waiting

At last, thoughts are turning toward getting War Chronicle back out on the track and, as usual with JRA, the race the trainer was thinking of has 42 declarations aiming to get in a gate holding 18! It could be an excuse, of course, showing owners that "we tried," as there must be other options, even if it means travelling. The reality is the horse will almost certainly do no good anyway, so it's better to just run the thing - if it does well, it will get it in race mode, and if it does badly, it makes the decision to retire it that much easier and sooner. With too many horses in training and nowhere near enough races, waiting for something that will suit out here will simply mean more expense for shareholders and no chance of seeing anything but copy and paste reports each month. If past results are anything to go by, the distance and ground will make no difference in any case! It would be worth waiting if you had a horse like Larressingle with the potential to do well, but War Chronicle is not Larressingle - despite two wins on paper, it's never been anywhere near that calibre even at its peak, and certainly not now...

Just seen the gate draw and line-up for Another Door's race on Wednesday, and personally I think Shadai have made a huge mistake. Yes, the money is good, but Another Door has not shown the kind of form that would justify any confidence in a decent position - I'd be surprised if we came away from the race with a penny, let alone a decent purse for finishing in the top three. Despite the super bloodlines and equally super purchase price, it has done nothing so far. To be frank, the 16,000,000 yen purchase price was ridiculous for this nag, with results making it hard to be happy if it had cost 10% of that. I could be wrong, but I can see me being annoyed rather than pleased on Wednesday.