Contrasts

Larressingle claimed a seven-length victory yesterday, beating the other heavily backed horse (fresh from JRA) by no less than eight lengths. I guess it will go back to JRA now, although I'd rather it stayed in NAR, running once or twice a month like a proper racehorse. Great run on the day, though...

On the flip side, today Trovao ran a race more in the mould of Perfumer or Chocolat Sucre than Larressingle's effort. It has to be one of the worst performances I've seen in a long time, and god knows I've had to suffer more than enough of those in Japan. It finished 11th of 12, a disgraceful 3.2 seconds off the pace (at least a fifth was needed to justify the trip), which naturally means nothing in the way of income and doubtless a break to follow at heavily over-priced rates. As such, it would have been better running the horse once a month in regular TCK races - we'd have got some entertainment and almost certainly for free. I really do wonder what is planned next. After a piss poor performance like that, having started at second favourite, a lot of thought needs to be given when considering the horse's future direction. Does it even have a future? Not if today's run is anything to go by - it was for the Gold Cup, but the pairing weren't worthy of a cracked tea mug with a missing handle. Furious!

PS. Just had the report in on Trovao. The trainer doesn't have any idea what went wrong, but one thing I can tell you for sure is you're not going to find the answer by shipping the bloody horse off to Northern Farm. So what do they do? Ship it off to Northern Farm. I honestly cannot wait to leave Japanese 'racing' behind me, for it is truly just a very bad joke that does nothing but act as a vessel for funnelling money to an undeserving monopoly in every direction possible. No thought whatsoever is given to providing owners with any kind of value for money, despite us paying over the odds for monthly keep, and way, way, way over the odds in initial purchase price. Fed up of being badly let down and no-one giving a toss as long as 'the boys' keep getting paid. The sooner this nightmare is all over, the better.

Weekend Resume

Raining Dollars was fifth, so no cigar (or pennies) Down Under, but at only 0.6 lengths down on the winner, we can take comfort in that it was a good strong run at least. The ground wasn't ideal for The Jazz Singer, having rained hard in the Fairyhouse area for a couple of days, so a fifth against some top horses was no disgrace.

Early betting on War Chronicle simply raised my question of why the donkey was being kept again. But after a dreadful start, the jockey kept his nerve and found a nice little gap down the inside for an unbelievable second place - if the finishing post had come ten yards sooner, it would have been a stunning win! Well, another pleasant shock, but now we need to keep up momentum and make up for all those lost months. If it was up to me, I'd keep the young jockey for War Chronicle, as he seems to understand the horse a lot better than her previous pairings.

Next up, Larressingle at Sonoda, followed by Trovao at Urawa...