Irish Luck?

Irish Harp was a very disappointing 12th - 2.2 seconds down on the leader. It's frankly hard to see that any improvement has been made, and retirement would be my honest opinion rather than keep just making up the numbers, which is all she ever seems to do nowadays with the new trainer. I don't know about others, but my patience has well and truly ran out. Larressingle should be better tomorrow, at least...

In the UK, Danielle's Journey started as second favourite last night, but finished fourth, a couple of lengths down (that's the end of her jumping season), while Sayesse has already been entered for another run on the 26th, with Ettie Hart following on the 28th. Lotus Blossom has arrived at Monbetsu to start an NAR career. The proposed quick gate test has been put off for a while until the horse settles into its new environment, which is a good idea, as it has already been on a long trip just to get to its new home, and is more likely to do well once it comes to trust its new handlers.

PS. As the blog counter hits the 70,000 visitors mark, Irish Harp has indeed been retired - one wonders what the outcome of the Urawa race would have been, but then the jockey would have been outside the family. The sad thing is that I've always had a soft spot for this horse, but now it's time for her to take up a new vocation. I sincerely hope she can have a long and healthy career as a broodmare.

PPS. Poor Larressingle was second taking her record to 0-3-1 from five runs, narrowly beaten by the only horse that I thought might threaten her. Considering how badly blocked we were coming off the last corner, we can count ourselves unlucky not to win. Lemaire did a super job of finding his way out of the scrum, and my faith in Ogata-sensei remains 100% intact...

Thursday's Transcript

Blacklister started as favourite but got a bit of a rough start and never really recovered, so had to settle for sixth after a cruise in at the end. A bit of an off day, then, but he'll be back - that's one thing you can be sure of with this fella! Sayesse is the next English runner, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the results. Another one to look forward to is Danielle's Journey running in the opener at Perth tomorrow.

On the JRA front, it's a shame that Belle Plage can't run at the weekend (not enough gates in JRA, as usual), although Larressingle to set to challenge the 4R at Tokyo-Fuchu on the 24th with Christophe Lemaire in the saddle. It means at least we have one of Ogata-sensei's horses in action, and will give us six horses racing in five days if we include the weekend nags.

Irish Harp's Urawa run has been shelved in favour of the 7R at Tokyo-Fuchu on Saturday (the 23rd), which is a 1400m dirt race; the jockey is Kazuki Kikuzawa - the son of the trainer, who qualifies for a lower weight as a rookie. War Chronicle should be back in action after a long time away from the track on the 30th, and Perfumer has returned from Northern Farm, so should be out soon, too.

Hero

Masashige Honda was a hero once again, coming second in the S1 Haneda Hai tonight - we only lost by a neck, finishing hard and closing fast, so the victor will have a real fight on his hands as the longer distance will suit us better in the Tokyo Derby on the 8th June. Arayama-sensei did a super job on the preparation side, it has to be said, and I think we can look forward to the biggest race of the NAR Nankan year with a fair bit of confidence given today's performance; the third-placed nag was two lengths down. Although we didn't win, given the break in racing before today, we can come away from TCK happy bunnies, that's for sure - good job, Mar-kun! Balances the Rush Attack report, too...

Next up was Ettie Hart at Catterick in a Class 5 race for fillies only over seven furlongs, with Graham Gibbons in the saddle. We clocked up a solid fifth place, getting her new flat season underway in what was basically a practice run. We have Blacklister at Beverley tomorrow, with a good chance of a win with Ryan Moore at the controls.

Not An ATM

With the letter that arrived in the post today, I can see the rumour I heard on the Shadai NAR horses for this coming year was partly right, although the expected risk and outlay has only doubled rather than quadrupled. It doesn't change my position, however, unless something really special comes along at a price that is far more realistic than those quoted in recent years. Horses like Magic Key and J'ai Un Reve have taught me a valuable lesson - my years of blind support are behind me, and from now on I need to see some true value for my investment, or some real effort and sincerity at the very least. I have an NAR plan in my head for the future, but if Japan doesn't appreciate the fact that I part with an awful lot of my hard-earned money, there are other countries that do, and all of my racing interests will be based abroad unless people stop treating me as an ATM and nothing more. Simple enough...

Tomorrow, Honda-kun gives Trovao a long-awaited return to the track in the Haneda Hai at TCK - I'll definitely be wishing him luck, as I've always liked the lad. I'm a bit concerned there will be race-rust, although the trainer has planned the Classic trail well with this nag so far, pulling in the services of Mikamoto-san along the way (someone I have a lot of respect for), so I'm assuming he's on top of the potential problem. At least the horse hasn't been released from the stables that much since its last outing, so it's not like the pathetic JRA/NF syndrome that destroys form (barring extraordinary situations, they're basically never released in the established racing nations so the groom and trainer know the horse inside-out and can fine-tune things on a daily basis until retirement). On saying that, Trovao did spend a fair bit of time at Northern Farm (about the same as Leontes - a $1.1m nag that won twice but hasn't won since it's NF excursion in December), and that worries me as much as the lack of recent race experience. Interestingly, the other G1 Carrot runners lining up alongside Leontes at the weekend were fielded by Ikee and Yahagi - the best was 1.9 seconds off the pace, the other 2.6! Looks like someone else will have learnt the hard way, via the gaping hole in their bank book. Anyway, due to the NF involvement, tonight may well turn out to be nothing more than a practice run for the Tokyo Derby, which would be a terrible waste. I hope I'm wrong.

Meanwhile, we've got some English action with Mick Channon's stables (Ettie Hart first, followed by Ryan Moore on Blacklister), and Ireland and Australia will be flying the flag for us soon, too. These places speak my language in more ways than one! Reports on horses like those released today on Massabielle and Infinity Love make no sense to me whatsoever, no matter what language they are written in. Perhaps if I'd never been near a Thoroughbred in my life, then they wouldn't grate so much, as I wouldn't know what they were saying was feeble at best, and more often than not pure bull.