Financial Disaster

Really annoyed with the bills from Carrot Club again - it's a damned good job they're running War Chronicle this weekend, for there's a mad bill for her that could and should have been avoided. In reality, she should have been retired at the beginning of 2015, or at least have stayed in NAR once that route was taken - at least we might have got some action out of the horse instead of feeble excuses for failure or the threat of yet more time off, as if it hasn't had enough already (three races within four weeks in NAR, but only a truly pathetic five races over 24 months in JRA). Rush Attack should have been retired eight months ago as well, for I can't see any meaning in spending out for almost a year (as I predicted, one will remember) to get back a horse than was nothing better than average at best. Yet another exercise in keeping Northern Farm rich with no thought whatsoever given to the shareholders.

Million Ways is on my radar as one that needs to perform very well over the first three months of 2017 (it's supposed to be arriving at TCK at the end of December) to justify keeping it, for the bills are pretty damned silly considering it isn't doing anything constructive - this month's invoice would be for a ridiculous 550,000 yen, and that simply cannot be justified unless it starts clawing it back in a hurry. After a win in March, four dreadful runs is all we've had for our money, so if it does no better than it did in the last three quarters of 2016, it should join Chocolat Sucre and Shine Tiara without hesitation, for it is a drain on finances and nothing more.

Trovao's bills, too, are outrageous - yes, there was transportation fees to take into account, but the club didn't have to buy the bloody truck, which it looks as if it did judging by the invoice we've got. Had Trovao not won, it would have been a serious loss yet again, for six out of nine horses brought in zilch, one got something but nowhere near enough to cover its keep, and two gave a plus sign, with Trovao covering them all. Considering he hadn't run for five months before that, though, he's probably only +/-0 after all is said and done, and needs another exceptionally good result on the 21st just to break even. What's more annoying is those six liabilities will almost certainly pull in zero again next month!

Larressingle should be out again on the 20th, but another win will be needed just to break even for the month - that's right, without two wins within the month at Sonoda rates, you make a loss! And they want you to keep supporting Japanese racing? I'm not happy about the horse going back to JRA, but at least it has more chance than War Chronicle and Rush Attack put all their power and speed together...

After an overly-long period of nothing happening, at least the Shadai TC and Sunday TC stuff has started earning its keep a bit better. Another Door has knocked a dent in its mountain of debt with a big win in the week; Pop Label is due out on the 29th, and Kealoha and Magic Key (both winners at Funabashi this month) are out again in early January. Only Phosphorus is letting the side down now, with bills coming our way for the incompetence of others, and how often is that the case out here? Far too often unfortunately, and, as far as I'm concerned, Phosphorus will have to go if it doesn't come back strong after yet another long break.

Tomorrow, we have races in Australia and then Ireland, and War Chronicle here on Sunday. Let's see what happens...

In Shock

For a change, a pleasant surprise... Another Door, beautifully guided by Osamu Shihara, was able to take advantage of a breakaway group that went too fast and take its second win today at Sonoda, claiming a healthy purse worth 3.3x more than it has managed to accumulate in all of its seven previous outings! I don't think anyone would have been more surprised than me at the result, and if I was asked to give a pre-race prediction again, it would still be fifth at best (amazingly, it started as ninth favourite). Interestingly, it found another gear at the end, pointing toward longer distances suiting the horse, for the 1700m 9R was 500m longer than any of the earlier races. At last, and not before time after so much disappointment, we seem to have found a way forward with this one.

PS. Looks like they've found another race for War Chronicle, and Larressingle should be out again a few days later with any luck. Amazing that you can run horses every two weeks in NAR, but the same horses need several months between runs in JRA. Ummm...

More Waiting

At last, thoughts are turning toward getting War Chronicle back out on the track and, as usual with JRA, the race the trainer was thinking of has 42 declarations aiming to get in a gate holding 18! It could be an excuse, of course, showing owners that "we tried," as there must be other options, even if it means travelling. The reality is the horse will almost certainly do no good anyway, so it's better to just run the thing - if it does well, it will get it in race mode, and if it does badly, it makes the decision to retire it that much easier and sooner. With too many horses in training and nowhere near enough races, waiting for something that will suit out here will simply mean more expense for shareholders and no chance of seeing anything but copy and paste reports each month. If past results are anything to go by, the distance and ground will make no difference in any case! It would be worth waiting if you had a horse like Larressingle with the potential to do well, but War Chronicle is not Larressingle - despite two wins on paper, it's never been anywhere near that calibre even at its peak, and certainly not now...

Just seen the gate draw and line-up for Another Door's race on Wednesday, and personally I think Shadai have made a huge mistake. Yes, the money is good, but Another Door has not shown the kind of form that would justify any confidence in a decent position - I'd be surprised if we came away from the race with a penny, let alone a decent purse for finishing in the top three. Despite the super bloodlines and equally super purchase price, it has done nothing so far. To be frank, the 16,000,000 yen purchase price was ridiculous for this nag, with results making it hard to be happy if it had cost 10% of that. I could be wrong, but I can see me being annoyed rather than pleased on Wednesday.

Ganbatte Kochi!

Just held my annual 'Friendship' race at Kochi (the 5R), with Akaoka-san riding the perfect start-to-finish race to claim a convincing victory against the odds - although he was second favourite, the odds were strongly in favour of the horse that ultimately came third. Mai Beppu came fifth despite having a tiddler that no-one fancied (weighing in at just 396kg), which was a fine performance as well. One thing for sure, one always gets an entertaining race at Kochi - I will certainly continue to sponsor races there, and may well keep a horse there one day to keep a certain level of interest in Japanese racing once the current lot have retired. For now, well done everyone, and thank you for a super race...