Raining Dollars was fifth in Oz, and although the trainer was happy enough with a nice recovery from a poor start, he has once again finished outside the money. More disappointing, by far, was the performance of Belle Plage - 15th in a race of 18 horses. Belle Plage has done absolutely nothing other than eat through money for over a year now. It's time as a racehorse is over, surely? Nothing as yet in the post-race report, so I hope there will be something regarding retirement on Monday...
PS. The date for Lotus Blossom's test is the 27th alright, but December, not November, meaning yet another month of nothing but bills on that one. At this rate it will be a three-year old before it runs, by which time there will be no way on Earth that it can ever recover a fraction of what it owes already. Shouldn't be surprised, I guess - all you do is throw money away with Japanese racing, with Rush Attack and War Chronicle being just the tip of the iceberg; Belle Plage, Million Ways and Phosphorus are much the same, and Pop Label and most of the others not much better. With excuses already being bandied about regarding Larressingle, Kealoha and Magic Key are about the only nags worth keeping out here, now they are back after long spells of sunbathing. Let's hope that retirement notice comes for Belle Plage - at least that would be one lot of dead wood out of the way.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Thursday, November 24, 2016
New Dates
Belle Plage gives us some JRA action on Saturday (I don't think War Chronicle or Rush Attack will ever run again - we just keep paying for them!), and on the NAR front, Lotus Blossom is supposed to be having its race proficiency test on the following day, while Vertice is being lined up for a debut at TCK on the 2nd December, with Mashima-kun booked as the jockey. Soon after, Chocolat Sucre should be out at Funabashi, along with Kealoha, Magic Key, and possibly Phosphorus. There's plenty of races at Sonoda, so with luck, Larressingle and Another Door can get a race there in the near future, too. Finally, Million Ways is due to go to its new home at TCK by the end of the year.
PS. Phosphorus has hit another problem, and should be retired on the spot. We cannot keep going on and on being served with a multitude of excuses for the thing not being able to do the job it was intended for. It went in for an operation that a horse can usually return from two weeks later... five months ago, and will be at least six now. As usual, the only efficient part of the Japanese racing scene is the invoicing department, for the bills are guaranteed to arrive on time, regardless of whether the inflated numbers contained within are justified or not, and more often than not, they're damned hard to justify - this month's Sunday Thoroughbred Club and Shadai Thoroughbred Club ones are very, very high, so let that serve as a warning to others - to break even at these levels, a win is an absolute must, as the usual prize money for coming second won't cover bills like this, and if nothing runs for half the year, you can see why it just doesn't make sense. Yes, I want to support NAR, but all I'm doing is supporting Shadai organizations (which are already rich enough) and getting nothing back for it most of the time, other than unrealistic bills and stress from reading bullshit. If nothing else, with luck, Pop Label should be out at TCK at the end of December.
PS. Phosphorus has hit another problem, and should be retired on the spot. We cannot keep going on and on being served with a multitude of excuses for the thing not being able to do the job it was intended for. It went in for an operation that a horse can usually return from two weeks later... five months ago, and will be at least six now. As usual, the only efficient part of the Japanese racing scene is the invoicing department, for the bills are guaranteed to arrive on time, regardless of whether the inflated numbers contained within are justified or not, and more often than not, they're damned hard to justify - this month's Sunday Thoroughbred Club and Shadai Thoroughbred Club ones are very, very high, so let that serve as a warning to others - to break even at these levels, a win is an absolute must, as the usual prize money for coming second won't cover bills like this, and if nothing runs for half the year, you can see why it just doesn't make sense. Yes, I want to support NAR, but all I'm doing is supporting Shadai organizations (which are already rich enough) and getting nothing back for it most of the time, other than unrealistic bills and stress from reading bullshit. If nothing else, with luck, Pop Label should be out at TCK at the end of December.
Monday, November 21, 2016
RIP Tempai
It is sad to report that Tempai (aka Tenn-chan) died on Sunday, having been a shadow of his former self for quite some time after a bad case of colic. I owned a stake in this lovely horse (winner of the Procyon Stakes) for a long while, even riding him in a gymkhana once, but gave him up a year ago due to an issue with one of the other shareholders.In some ways I wish I hadn't seen him just before he died, as the time before that he'd seemed really bright, sticking his head out the stable window with his ears pricked - a sign that he was happy to spot me from the car park. To see him struggling to get up isn't a nice experience, but even then he eat some apple and carrots as if nothing was wrong - a fighter to the end... RIP Tenn-chan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)