In The Dollars

Courtesy JLH Racing

Raining Dollars (pictured) came a handy third with Chelsea against some stiff competition at Townsville, which is a very pleasing result. Condition-wise, he looks superb, so I think we can expect some big things from him as the weather cools down.

As it happens, there's a new horse in the JLH Racing pipeline as a possible replacement for Pretty Gully. More on that later, as soon as more details emerge and my stake in the pony has been approved (more people need to come forward at this stage). It will be nice to have two running Down Under again, though...

PS. Raining Dollars ('Ted') got home nicely and - not surprisingly - dived straight into his food bucket. He'll be out again on the 10th, which is something to look forward to.

A Right Balls-Up!

Well, what can I say? Pop Label was simply not given the chance he deserves at TCK today. Mashima-kun was changed as the jockey at the last minute, although mysteriously the Sunday TC website doesn't reflect this, preferring instead to highlight the fact that his replacement jockey had been replaced by a third one! Seeing as Pop is a pain coming out of the gate, someone sitting on him for the first time will always be at a disadvantage, but in a 1200m race, the start is even more critical.

Sure enough, the initial dash was predictably disappointing, despite Pop clearing the gate reasonably well compared to what I was expecting, while Mashima-kun flew away on another Shadai/Sunday horse to get well into the money at the end, and Pop - who was better fancied, being second favourite - finished a distant eighth. Too many things that annoy me here, including the fact that it was too short a distance for a horse like this in the first place; there has obviously been no extra gate training, when this is the only real chink in the horse's armour; super training times never transferred to the track on race days; the multitude of jockey changes (raising the conflict of interest question again, which I'm far from happy about), and a disgraceful third corner that we'll be lucky to come away from without injury (100% the fault of the jockey, who rode like a twat and should have gone around the outside, using the horse's crazy finishing power). All told, it was like watching JRA 'racing' today, and that really saddens me! I honestly wish he'd been left at Funabashi, where the direction of the track might not have suited him perfectly, but at least he was being handled and trained properly there...

I think I should have kept working. It's a damned good job I bought that other Carrot horse before today - the feeling I'm left with after watching that last race would have changed the situation, that's for sure. Well, it's not Carrot Club's fault for what happened, and, as things stand, I'm glad we've got Lotus Blossom on the books. Shine Tiara is back at Kawasaki, by the way, and Million Ways is booked for a 1500m run at Funabashi on the 11th; Chocolat Sucre will also run there at some time during the same week.

PS. Single Cask has been retired, which is good. Next up, if we can get rid of War Chronicle (shuffled from pillar to post ever since her NAR campaign), Irish Harp (no confidence whatsoever in the trainer), Tenshinramman (ditto), Infinity Love (ditto) and Perfumer (ditto), then we'll have a decent line-up at last.

Another Runner

Kealoha passed his race proficiency test easy enough today thanks to the sterling effort of Masashige Honda. His first race is due on 11th March, which is a bit unfortunate, as that's the day of Louis' graduation from Junior High School. With any luck, Kealoha will have done some extra gate training and gained some decent muscle tone by then! I hope we can keep Mar-kun as the jockey...

Quite a few Carrot Club reports in, and I'm just going to say 'no comment' on the JRA stuff and basically leave it at that. Trovao is being trained at a gentle pace, but this horse is on the NAR big race ladder, and more planning is necessary as a result - timing is dictated by the fixed date of the targeted races themselves, with smaller runs in-between if the gap is too big. It's a different scenario, and the only JRA horse in anything like that position is Massabielle. Enough said.

Shine Tiara won at the end of January and will be back home from her rest spell soon, with Yuya Yamazaki putting his usual level of planning in motion to time the return in readiness for a March run (there was no meeting in February, so it was a good chance for a break), and Pop Label is out on the 25th at TCK. He teams up with Mashima-kun for the first time, starting in gate three in the 1200m 10R. Looking at the practice times, if we can nail the start, we're in with a chance - at the end of the day, a win is long overdue with this fella!

Moving abroad, Raining Dollars runs in Australia on Friday, which should be fun. Chelsea Jokic is lined up as the jockey, who scored a treble the other day, and combined with the weather starting to cool down, that puts us in with a chance of getting 'Ted' his first win. Fingers crossed.

PS. Rush Attack is now lined up for the 6th March at Nakayama, but you can lay odds that will be a popular destination, and I'll believe the entry has gone through the day before the actual race. Meanwhile, Irish Harp continues its disappointing post-Sugai existence. The practice time posted would put it in a league well below Single Cask, which is hard to believe, although there's a chance that the huge weight gain has something to do with it. Earlier in the month, the scales must have almost broke, as she hit exactly 50kg more than her last race weight, recorded at the end of November, and representing her average over the whole of 2015. Things never improve in JRA. And of course they never will if you have no pride in your work and no-one is under pressure to win... At least NAR gives us some hope, and Phosphorus has been slotted in for a Kawasaki race on the 3rd March.