Taking An Infinity

Poor Blacklister continued his run of 'close but no cigar' runs, coming second at Lingfield Park by a neck; he'll almost certainly run at Chelmsford on the 28th now as a result. The unluckiest horse in training? Probably. Fingers crossed for him, though - he deserves a win.

Meanwhile, we had the usual JRA disaster, but even worse than my already low expectations - and by quite some margin! Basically, Infinity was last, because the only reason there was two horses behind it was due to a dreadful accident. Infinity cannot even use this mishap as an excuse, as it was as good as pulled up on the back straight, while the accident happened on the final corner. Iwata says the horse simply wasn't interested, and a run of that quality (over ten seconds behind the winner) brings into question whether it has been trained at all... Whatever, it was probably the worst run I've ever seen, making Beat The Boarder look good! I remember - with tears welling up in my eyes - seeing a horse with a badly broken leg running towards the post at TCK. It was so fired up and full of fighting spirit, the poor thing just kept going, and I felt a strange mixture of heartfelt sadness and deep admiration for this beautiful beast, who I wish I could have given a retirement home to. The only reason I'm bringing it up is that that horse was faster than Infinity Love, even with three good legs instead of four. And while my humour is notoriously black at times, that is not a joke!!

Ultimately, though, there is an underlying problem that needs to be addressed if JRA is to improve - there are not enough races. It is typical of the JRA lot to put a turf racer on dirt, knowing it has no chance (the two are completely different disciplines, like asking Bolt win a marathon), simply because there are so few turf races available - one miss first time out, and basically you may as well forget any chances of the horse developing a proper career. So, Infinity will now doubtless go for a long holiday (having finished so far back, there will be no choice in the matter, even if there were more races on the calendar), with no real training or mental development for months, and come back still not knowing what a race is. It will then doubtless be entered in a totally unsuitable race, and more time and money will be wasted before the inevitable. From what I've seen, it would be better - and quicker - to retire the horse now, rather than wait for a series of results (probably one extra race if the past repeats itself) that will do nothing except damage the reputation of Falbrav and further diminish the funds of shareholders. So far, all today has done is prove a lot of my theories once and for all, and the sooner my JRA era is over the better. Complete and utter bollocks!

After an object lesson in the quaint subtlety of the English language, all we can do now is look forward to Shine Tiara at Kawasaki on Tuesday, who will hopefully be joined by A Touch Of Sparkle on the same day in far-away Ireland. Who knows, by then we might even have received an excuse from today's trainer on what happened this morning?

PS. The Irish meeting has been abandoned due to a waterlogged track.

Bittersweet

Chocolat Sucre was a bit unfortunate to only come away with a third place finish on Friday morning. The result can be squarely put down to a dreadful exit from the gate (probably caused by the lengthy delay in getting them all loaded, as we were first in!), giving the winning horse an incredible margin on which to capitalize, and forcing Mori-kun all the way around the outside. To come from the back and pass so many other horses showed good spirit, though, and the next race should be fun to watch. Such a pretty horse, but a monster inside!

Phosphorus (pictured) had a bit of a disaster. I watched him walking across from the stables to the paddock area, and he was in ultra-high tension mode, prancing and kicking out his back legs like he was the model for the Buckaroo game! In reality, he'd kind of peaked by the time he made the gate. In the race itself, having made a rough start, Kota adjusted his pace at one point as a necessity, but a pull on the reins is a sign to stop as far as 'Phos' is concerned. In the end, Kota cruised him in at the back, allowing him to fight another day, with Phosphorus in the kind of condition that would have allowed him to enter the next race. He'll be out again soon, you can bet your life on that. In fact, knowing the way Yano-sensei works, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he turns up at the Kawasaki meeting next week...

News just in: A Touch Of Sparkle should be out for her third race at Tramore on the 26th, while Danielle's Journey is set to race in February with any luck to try and revive the Cheltenham dream. Despite the trainer's positive attitude, I'm not sure whether it can be done beyond a paper exercise at this stage (a lot of things that can usually be factored in to maximize chances have to be left to luck as a lack of time and the need for a quick result is now the driving force), which is annoying as she should have been able to qualify with ease had we not been needlessly disqualified at Down Royal.

Blacklister is up next, when hopefully he will get a bit of luck for the first time in his career and deliver a first win on his own record sheet and my 40th. He certainly deserves the victor's spoils, and stands a lot more chance of securing them than Infinity Love, who runs in Japan on Sunday!

Promise Shown

Courtesy Carrot Club

Million Ways (pictured) was a bit disappointing in his Nankan debut, finishing seventh, but there were plenty of lessons learnt, and from what I saw in the early stages of the race, I have confidence that this horse will come good if we keep giving it track experience. The gate exit (and mature attitude in it) was fine, with a good turn of speed all the way through to the final two furlongs, when the tongue moved and destroyed the horse's breathing. This can be cured quite easily, and I reckon when the necessary fix is combined with lighter track conditions over a similar distance (1200m), Million Ways will show his potential and do justice to his Vermilion bloodlines. He'll be out again in the middle of February.

Next up is Chocolat Sucre tomorrow, making a full debut (there was no Monbetsu campaign with this one) with Mori-kun in the saddle. Kota Motohashi has been confirmed for Phosphorus later in the day. With the pair back in training together in the morning, it will be nice to see these two back in a winning partnership. Soon after, Blacklister should be running with John Egan at Lingfield in England on Saturday, hoping for a bit of luck for once, Infinity Love and Iwata-san team up at Chukyo on Sunday (JRA), although I don't really rate their chances over a longer distance (over dirt to boot!) given the last outing. I hope I'm proved wrong, of course, and the experience will be a good thing anyway, whatever the race scenario. Meanwhile, Shine Tiara has been pencilled in to run on the 26th at Kawasaki (NAR). With Konno-san at the controls, it should be a race well worth watching.

Magic Key V1

Courtesy Sunday TC

Magic Key was allowed to run properly today, and secured an easy victory, cruising in by two lengths - it could have been more, but there was no need to force things. There's no escaping the fact that I'm still annoyed that we should have won the debut race by a good four lengths or more instead of coming second, especially when the horse and her grooming staff were not at fault. It will take time to make a full recovery and get things back to the way they were before last month in my own mind, but at least we're back on track with a team that wants to win, with a Classic in mind as the season target, and I'm one small step closer to regaining trust in the system and being able to press a reset button. For today, though, let's just say well done to Nakano-kun - a great ride from start to finish!

Feeling Weary

Having started as joint-second favourite, Danielle's Journey was seventh in Leopardstown, so a double-whammy after the disqualification the other day. The financial hit is one thing, but the Cheltenham dream looks ruined now, which hurts more to be honest, as DJ has the potential to do good things. With entry pace thus far verging on cautious in the extreme, in reality, today's race was slotted into the programme to make up for the needless disaster in December, when a longer spell of training or waiting for better ground would have been preferable before a proper assault on a race that should have been a final run-up to Cheltenham. Now we're left in the worst possible scenario!

Courtesy Carrot Club

Raining Dollars (aka Ted) jumps out in Oz tomorrow, but it's not a proper race, so the result is irrelevant outside our reference. Magic Key steps up to the plate on Wednesday, although I'm not looking forward to the race one bit. I might not even bother going to watch to be honest, as the other day's incident has all but destroyed the beauty of the final element of the Japanese racing scene that I loved so much with all my heart (I already detest most of the other bits!), but one thing I can say for sure is that the day's performance and the final jockey choice will have a huge bearing on my future NAR policy. I've just had Louis make a suggestion when he came by to say goodnight, as he knows I'm ready to quit, and for years that was totally unthinkable until the events of last month; I would have been willing to stake the house on me staying in NAR forever until that fateful day, which seemed an even lower point in my racing life after the high provided by a battling Mar-kun and Trovao. Anyway, let's see what happens midweek and work from there.

After Magic Key, Million Ways is out next, which could quite literally go a million ways (being its first run in four months and a Nankan debut, a good result is far from a dead cert, even with Mashima-kun at the controls), while Chocolat Sucre (pictured, with a cold-looking Yuta Sato up) makes her debut on the 22nd with Mori-kun in the saddle, who I know will give it all he's got - the result will be a fair reflection of capabilities, unlike MK's debut. Phosphorus and Kota-kun (who I'm assuming will be the jockey) will also go all the way, and it will be interesting to see how much of a recovery this five-time winner has made since his long lay-off through injury. We shall also see - on either Friday or Saturday - whether Blacklister will finally have a bit of luck after being narrowly denied victory on many occasions. So, a busy week in store, that may or may not yield results. But for now, yet another disappointment to face as my head hits the pillow...

PS. The jockey for Magic Key's second outing will be Shogo Nakano. Good! Of course, gate ten out of eleven, but good nonetheless - hopefully we can start a proper campaign now, and I can slowly begin to rid myself of the bad taste left in my mouth after her debut run. Ted had a nice trial, too, and should be a force to be reckoned with when he gets back into race mode...