A Few Dates

The two Irish horses are supposed to be running at Down Royal on the 3rd February, although the ground is unlikely to be kind if the current weather keeps up; A Touch Of Sparkle should make her debut over hurdles if all goes according to plan. Raining Dollars will have another jump-out in Australia on the 5th, with a race scheduled for the 26th February if all goes well - he should be in super condition!

Meanwhile, in Japan, Belle Plage should be out at Tokyo-Fuchu in a mile dirt race on the 7th. Looking further ahead, Phosphorus is aiming for revenge for last time at Funabashi in the middle of the month (along with Chocolat Sucre and Million Ways), while Rush Attack is pencilled in for the 1800m turf race at Tokyo on the 21st, and Pop Label is due to run again at the TCK soon after.

PS. The Magic Key saga continues, this time taking a dramatic downward spiral - a chipped knee will see her out of action for six months, which rules out any chances of a Classic, as well as a guarantee of yet more financial losses to add onto those incurred via the first race funny business. And this after been told that a first X-ray was all clear. To say I'm not a happy bunny would be an understatement of epic proportions!

PPS. Danielle's Journey will not run on Wednesday, rounding off today's news nicely. Bad day!

Lucky 13?

Infinity Love will be as good as restarting her career according to the trainer, although how long it will take to get her back to the tracks, who knows? In reality, of course, there is no alternative if she is to be kept rather than retired - a very intensive programme will be needed to create a racehorse out of what ran in those first two outings. Whether the Northern Farm staff can do that is a matter of opinion, but the usual treadmill sessions and 18-18 canters certainly won't change things one bit!

Perfumer is said to be getting closer to a run at last, which is about time considering his last outing was in early June last year. There are thoughts of another JRA-NAR mix run, which would seem to make sense as the time posted this week was hardly stunning. Anyway, Massabielle is supposed to be coming back soon, too, which is definitely something worth looking forward to.

Not much else to report, other than Blacklister has another run tomorrow, this time at Chelmsford. Fingers crossed for the little fighter, who definitely deserves a win. From 12 races since his June 2015 debut (compare that figure to JRA horses), he has a 0-4-1 record, and has come fourth no less than four times! Let's hope 13 is a lucky number for him. Whatever happens, I think we have an excellent UK flat season in store...

PS. Poor Blacklister moved his record to 0-5-1, coming against a real tough cookie. I'll keep you posted on what happens next, but I tip my hat to this wonderful fighter.

Shine Tiara V1

Courtesy Carrot Club

After all the recent disappointment (Magic Key's win earlier in the month only balanced out the first race malady), it was a joy to watch Konno-san team up with Shine Tiara to take a start to finish victory at Kawasaki this morning in a remarkable show of strength. Yuya Yamazaki and his team had obviously been working hard behind the scenes, as she was tight and raring to go. Although most of the JRA Carrot Club horses give me nothing but stress, it's not the club's fault - it's JRA's - and at least their NAR horses prove that. I'm now rather sad that I missed out on the one I'd been waiting for for ages, but the timing was all wrong for that purchase due to a couple of other things that happened in the background, not least the poor sale price of a JRA horse. Anyway, today was a superb performance worthy of a bottle of bubbly being cracked open, with Shine Tiara giving me my 40th win to date.