War Chronicle is being held captive at Northern Farm once more, which I guess means we'll be paying for another three months of bullshit reports, each conflicting the last to ensure that it stays there as long as possible, funnelling money at every possible opportunity to an undeserving empire. If there's nothing wrong, why was it sent to NF, cutting short the promised 'autumn keiba' that we waited three months for? If whatever was wrong is now "under control," considering the speed with which an all-clear has been given, why couldn't the racing stables have dealt with it? Oh, that's right - no-one at the stables can remember the bloody horse, because, like most of its contemporaries, it spends most of the year at Northern Farm! It's all just a string of excuses to cover up a distinct lack of races, a lack of space at Mito and Ritto, and an overwhelming lack of interest in providing shareholders with anything other than totally unjustified invoices month after month. The fact is, like Belle Plage and all the others, the horse will never do any good with three and four month gaps between each race - the only time it has performed well was in its NAR era, when it raced every couple of weeks. That's what it needs - race conditioning and experience. It won't get that being stuck at NF for 37 of the 46 weeks so far this year, a number that will probably go to 43 out of 52 by the time 2016 ends if previous form is anything to go by. Disgraceful.
Having done the seemingly obligatory Northern Farm trip, Larressingle should be out at Sonoda in early December, if all goes to plan. If it's a similar scenario to War Chronicle, I guess they will run it as many times as possible within a couple of months (amazing how the "tiredness" that hits JRA horses so often, if we're to believe reports, doesn't seem to affect them when they run in NAR) and then send it back to JRA to go back to a campaign of 'once a season' racing with NF stop-overs in-between. The only reason it raced so much before was to try and get the all-important win to guarantee easy income for the club for two or three years - once it's got that at Sonoda, there will be no interest in progress, just billing shareholders, as has been the case so often before with Carrot's JRA nags. Such a waste of a decent horse. It should stay in NAR, where at least we might actually get some racing instead of perpetual Northern Farm reports for our money.
The Million Ways report has filtered through, and we can safely say it will have been out of racing for half of the year by the time 2016 comes to an end. I'm sure these reports are written to piss me off - most of the time they succeed anyway! It wouldn't be so bad if we knew it would come back strong, but you can bet it won't, and we'll end up being fed excuses for failure instead of enjoying races, as with so many of the Carrot Club horses.
On the subject of excuses for failure, Pop Label is running on Friday with Mori-kun in the saddle. The Sunday TC report is saying he's not perfect, which is a way of preparing us for yet another awful run, I guess. Personally, if it was down to me, this would be the final chance for this nag, for March 2015 was the last time it ever truly looked like winning, and that race was thrown to give someone a retirement present. Since then, the odd second place that followed hasn't looked anywhere near as convincing, and midfield is not what one expects of a Juvenile Champion - especially one that has had so much time off for this and that and owes owners a fortune in lost revenue. If it continues at this level, it's not a question of not being able to claw money back, it's the prospect of definitely losing more money ad infinitum.
PS. Phosphorus might make a comeback at the next Funabashi meeting in early December, but I wouldn't bank on it. Magic Key and Kealoha are also promised, and entries are much more likely on these two. Another Door is moving to Sonoda on Friday, so progress on that front, too. The Carrot Club stuff, however, continues to disappoint - they can't win (or even take the sting out of their running costs) if they never run, or do badly when they do finally hit the track...
PPS. Chocolat Sucre should be out at Funabashi in early December (it did only jog around the last time, after all), while Vertice is due to make its debut at TCK in the week before that with any luck. Nothing firm as yet, but at least it's a statement of intent. Lotus Blossom is still a problem, though, having lost weight on its trip south, despite looking like a wooly mammoth. When it will be ready to run, god only knows.
