2:08 p.m. My client is not coming.

I had an appointment of a meeting from 2:00 so I prepared everything and have been waiting for my client to come. But he hasn't showed up. Nearly 10 minutes have passed and not a sign of him anywhere... zilch.

How many times do I have to call up a client to remind them of their own schedule?

The End

Caterpillar

5:42 p.m. Oh yes, Yasuda Kinen wasn't a classic race. So they haven't announced the barriers yet. Well, tomorrow.

I have been tied up at meetings after meetings today, and am drained. Don't have any spare energy left to think about races right now. As amtter of fact, have been busy all week that I just finished analyzing the D'erby last night. Will have to make some time tomorrow to call Yasuda Kinen, but somehow it doesn't seem to spark my motivation. Perhaps that's because of Maurice?

The End

Caterpillar

2:52 p.m. So the barrier draw. Clarent in post number1, Danon Shark in 2, Decipher in 4, Contentment in 5, Logo Type in 6, Satono Aladdin in 7, Maurice in 8, Isla Bonita in 9, Real Steel in 11.

Only 12 horses entering the race gets my motivation down. Also it would advantage horses like Maurice and Deep Impact descendants while going against Rosa Gigantea or Isla Bonita. Prrff, uninteresting.

The End

Caterpillar

2:24 p.m. Following the advice I'd written last year on my notes, I would key Real Steel.

A Tokyo mile G1 is a setting which requires freshness the most. This is what I've learned in the past decades of my racing fan career. Last year, I ignored Maurice intentionally although it was his first time running a G1 and was well prepared for it, because he was so favored. I don't want to make the same mistake again, so am going to name Real Steel this year.

Maurice seems to me to be on a tightrope. Either he gets across safely and win the race, or he'd sink in the group. In conclusion, I am going to buy Rosa Gigantea, Decipher, Contenment, Satono Aladdin and perhaps Logo Type on my wheel if it gets rainy. Maurice, I'd probably buy only on my exacta.

The End

Caterpillar

8:40 p.m. My key horse Real Steel has somehow dutifully and loyally, followed in the footsteps of Leontes to have a fight with the rider and sink in 11th place. No, that's not right. It was the rider Fukunaga, who followed in the footsteps of Mirco. What was he doing last week while Mirco kindly showed him the worst way to ride in a race?

The race itself turned out to be slow and uninteresting. I did simulate a slow race, but I thought either Satono Aladdin or Rosa Gigantea would at least perform better than old Logo Type. But then, in such a slow race, the position meant everything. Well, almost everything.

The End

Caterpillar

3:58 p.m. There's two weeks before the last G1 of this spring season, so I ought to get refreshed during this time. Though I doubt I can.

The main reasons for my race loss this season are drawing and the lack of my notes. I've been practicing drawing since last year, but lately I've been a bit busy that I couldn't spare enough time for my drawing. I couldn't cut work so naturally, the time I spend for calling the races gets eaten up. As for the lack of notes, due to my terrible mistake of saving the wrong data from my mail box, I couldn't refer to most of the notes I'd made last spring.

Well, not that I'll win if I had the notes.

The End

Caterpillar

4:09 p.m. Luckily, I discovered that I still had my notes of last year's Takaraduka Kinen on my iPad.

Fn. Now that I have some clues, all I have to do now is add some more research and choose the horse that best fits my requirements. Besides, I have 12 more days to do that. Piece of cake, heh.

The End

Caterpillar

12:35 p.m. Who said it was going to rain today?

I brought my full rain kit, folding umbrella, backpack cover and a rain parker, and it's not even drizzling like yesterday. I carried my heavy backpack sweating bullets in my shirt. Moreover, I see blue skies from the gap between the clouds. My backpack space is not limitless, you know.

I wish they had penalties for such irresponsible predictions.

The End

Caterpillar

4:38 p.m. The name "nihonium" for the atomic element 113 sounds nice. It makes us all feel proud of our people.

On the other hand, I've been met with disappointment yet again with the forecast. I'm sure they said we were bound for a thunderstorm in the forecast last night. That's why I reluctantly wore boots today although I wanted to come in my Teva sandals. So far it hasn't rained. Not even a sprinkle.

The day isn't over yet and there might be chances that I will get caught in a thunderstorm before I get home. But I doubt it.

The End

Caterpillar

5:01 p.m. Eishin Hikari has earned himself the honor of being the world's top horse.

According to Logines World's Best Racehorse Rankings 1st Jan 2016 - 5th Jun 2016, Eishin Hikari has been ranked number one with 129 points. Oh well, I wonder what's going to happen if he won the coming up Prince of Wales Stakes?

By the way, again the horse's name was spelled A Shin Hikari. Excuse me for spelling the name incorrectly, champion.

The End

Caterpillar

12:53 p.m. No G1 races this weekend so will take a quick look at the Epsom Cup (G3).

From the members, it looks like there's no way the lap would become tight. That means you need to either race in the front group or, have miraculous instantaneous speed to cover the last 3 furlongs in well, say 31.5 seconds to come within 3rd place. 1800m on Tokyo turf usually turns out to be like drawing straws, depending on the positions of the horses in the race, but if I were to buy betting tickets, I'd probably go somewhere around Meiner Milano and Fluky.

Rouge Buck? Nah, her prformance can improve though I won't bet on her win.

The End

Caterpillar

5:23 p.m. Aw, I said you don't have to come in 1st place, Rouge Buck!

I was aware that she might be able to run a smooth race because she'd drawn an outer post, but I'd completely forgotten she carried only 54kg. I thought it was 56. That's a 4kg handicap for Fluky. If Rouge Buck and Fluky had carried the same weight, I'm sure the results must have changed.

The End

Caterpillar

4:37 p.m. And now it rains.

But well, we do need some rain as the dams are drying up. Besides, I was able to finish my haircut in 20 minutes. Thanks to the rain, there were only 2 women before me at the salon.

You need to get lucky sometimes.

The End

Caterpillar

5:11 p.m. I'm using a template to write this "Murmur," which has all the dates and tags. This, I made in 2011, so I've been using it for roughly 5 years now. Usually, I copy-paste the template and fill in the articles.

Today I pasted the template and realized that the date and day of the week were exactly the same, well of course, except for the year. Miraculous!

The thing is though, I only have this template for week.

The End

Caterpillar

5:20 p.m. I dropped by Daiso in a while to buy some computer cleaning sheet for stupid Cow.

I had other things to buy and other places to go, but because I couldn't find the computer cleaning sheet in the racks, I had to waste 30 minutes going from end to end of the floor. What's worse is that they didn't have any in store.

Not only have I dumped my precious 30 minutes for nothing, now I'll have to spend another half hour to get my own things, all because stupid Cow made me go to Daiso. Humph.

The End

Caterpillar

5:10 p.m. A Shin Hikari (I got it right this time) has disappointingly sunk in 6th place in Prince of Wales Stakes.

I half expected the outcome, though. Mainly because of the course design and the turf condition. The course, having only three corners and an uphill in the last stretch, was apparently not favorable to A Shin Hikari who takes the lead, since there will be less chances to catch his breath. Additionally, stamina and power will be required. A Shin Hikari obviously performs better on smaller flat courses.

As for the turf condition, personally, I think he can handle soft but a firm fast condition would better advantage instantaneous speed.

The End

Caterpillar

5:13 p.m. Wednesday night, I got home exhauseted after the extra shopping. I was about to open the zipper of my backpack pocket to take out my commuting pass and a coffee shop prepaid card as usual, and disovered that the zipper was already opened, and the pocket empty. I must have forgotten to zip it up when I left the coffee shop to drop all the contents on my way home. Darn! I dragged my tired, aching feet and went walking back to the station the way I came.

About halfway to the station, I saw a dark square on the road. Unbelievable. My commuting pass lay there untouched in my black pass case. As I proceeded on my search (I couldn't give up here since I'd just charged the prepaid card), this time I saw some white squares scattered on ahead. My prepaid card and the receipts I got when I charged it! Miraculously, I got both my commuting pass and prepaid card back safely.

But getting too lucky here, I have a feeling that I won't be blessed by luck for the next couple of years.

The End

Caterpillar

1:10 p.m. As it is the opening week for Hakodate tracks, I'm not sure how the track condition would turn out. So I can't be sure, but think will check out the performances of Tizona, Candy Barows and perhaps Seiko Raiko. Simply cannot imagine Let's Go Donki winning the race without incident.

For the Unicorn Stakes, it all depends on the lap; if it becomes slow, horses with enough speed to win a 1400m would perform well, while horses that has run a 1800m race would sweep the top 3 if it becomes fast. I say I wouldn't go against Strong Barows.

Anyway, I will have to start thinking about Takaraduka Kinen.

The End

Caterpillar

6:35 p.m. Solveig has won the Hakodate Sprint. I did think for a moment of her winning, but decided against it as she was from the outmost barrier. I should have noticed that she usually races up front so the barrier wouldn't be much of a problem. I thought Tizona might do a bit better, though perhaps he wasn't focused. As for Candy Barows, losing weight is out of the question. There's no way she could have performed good in such condition. Same goes for Seiko Raiko.

Christophe has ridden Strong Barows perfectly until the last 200m. If he had kept more distance between Strong Barows and Gold Dream, he could have won. The race itself was a boring one, having a huge gap between the top three horses and the others.

The End

Caterpillar

4:05 p.m. Cow has been bothering me time and again since Saturday and I've been way behind schedule because of this.

Friday night, Cow booted his now-retired-from-office desk-top computer in his room only to discover it didn't. He narrowed down the cause of the trouble to either the graphic board or the power unit, and spent all Saturday getting a new graphic board and replacing it, interrupting me now and then while he deleted and installed respective drivers, since the instruction manual attached to the graphic board was in English. However, it turned out that it wasn't the graphic board.

After some struggles, he seems to have come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with the mother board. Currently, he's trying to check if the computer boots for one last time, with the possibly damaged mother board. You just don't know when to give up, do you Cow?

The End

Caterpillar

3:53 p.m. As usual, I have a lot of things to do; preparations for work, searching for Takaraduka, cleaning, washing, shopping, etc., etc.

But my brain is not working, thanks to JoOusama who kindly woke me up at 7:00 when I've only been sleeping for less than 3 hours. I don't know why though she keeps doing this without exception, when she has to get up and leave the house eralier than me for some reason. This morning, she had an errand to take Tono to the hospital which is probably a daunting task for her, because she never likes to do anything for other people.

The End

Caterpillar

4:40 p.m. Last night I saw on the TV news headline that nicotinamide mononucleotide is going to be tested on himan bodies in clinical trial.

According to the news, this substance has been confirmed to slow down the aging process and is now drawing attention as anti-aging suppliment.

Watching the news, the name "nicotinamide" was instantly linked in my head to the nicotine contained in cigarettes. Not to mention the two are completely different substances, the name just struck me to recall that tobacco was once loved by our ancestors as something that had medical effect. Nowadays they are blamed for the cause of lung cancer, but who knows? This recognition might change in the next 50 years or so, just like it has changed so drastically in the past.

The End

Caterpillar

5:40 p.m. Majesty Hearts have scratched off and Takaraduka Kinen will be run with 17 horses. Here are the barriers.

Ambitious is in post number 2, Kitasan Black is in 3, Lovely Day is in 7, Stephanos is in 8, Duramente is in 9, Curren Mirotic is in 10, Toho Jackal is in 11, Satono Noblesse is in 12, Satono Crown is in 15, Maria Light is in 16.

Hmm... interesting. Kitasan has drawn a good barrier, and the soft track condition will probably advantage him. Though I'm afraid that it might do him bad if there is damage left from Tennno-sho. Duramente seems all clear. Details coming up in the weekend!

The End

Caterpillar

5:21 p.m. I am drained.

3 hours of meeting without even a five-minute break is a synonim to torture to me. I need some rest and definitely, a potty break.

The End

Caterpillar

2:57 p.m. So. Thanks for waiting, here's my call for Takaraduka Kinen.

I've narrowed my options down to : Kitasan Black, Cheval Grand, Staphanos, Duramente, Satono Crown, Maria Light and Yamakatsu Ace. Am thinking of keying Duramente in the 1st place, Cheval Grand, Maria Light and Yamakatsu Ace in 2nd, and buy a wheel with the others.

I can't be sure about Kitasan Black, Satono Crown and Maria Light. Expecially Kiatasan. He might be nowhere to be seen, but just for insurance. I'm counting on Ikezoe to daringly take the lead and hang in there till the last minute, even if Duramente comes charging up. All right folks, this is going to be the last spring G1 race. Have a happy Takaraduka Kinen!

The End

Caterpillar

11:28 p.m. Because no one dared to stop Kitasan Black, Yutaka has taken advantage of his skill to clock the lap and ride Kitasan at a precisely average pace. There was only a 0.1 second gap between the first 3 furlongs and the last. Amazing. Though it only made things easier for horses that performed well in their previous races.

Duramente stayed behind until the last corner and it turned out to be critical. But perhaps the horse might not have been in his top form, considering his slow start. Yamakatsu Ace was already struggling at the 3rd corner so was out of the question. As for Cheval Grand, I wonder what he was doing?

My bold trifectas turned to paper and I only proved that I wasn't brave but just self-applauding.

The End

Caterpillar

3:54 p.m. It transpired that I had mistaken my calculations somehow, and the lap actually was fast.

I had everything wrong. And my spring G1 series ended in a total loss. I must review and analyze during the summer. As a start, will go and see the race again, to find out what Cheval Grand was doing.

The End

Caterpillar

3:24 p.m. Perhaps you might already know, but JRA has announced that they are going to sell the betting tickets for Grand Prix l'Arc de Triomphe this year. Even though Duramente has scratched off due to an accident following Takaraduka Kinen.

They have also made an announcement today, that they will have a public barrier draw for this year-end's Arima Kinen. The draw will take place on 21st, December and will be broadcasted on BS Fuji. Heh. So there will be another cheating this year I suppose. I'll keep that in mind.

The End

Caterpillar

5:14 p.m. One of our neighbors have paid us a visit with her dog in a while. We've known the dog since he was only a year old, but now he's grown 9 years old moving on to 10 this December. Hmmm... time flies.

After the brief, happy reunion, I checked the Yahoo! news and discovered that Duramente is retiring, because there is no hope for recovery. Aw.

The End

Caterpillar

2:47 p.m. I've witnessed a horrifying scene. I was passing by the elevator going down to the platform in a subway station, when a young mother pushed a baby buggy in the already crowded elevator. The doors started to close, but they reopened after bumping on the buggy's sides. I was too surprised to utter a word. I wonder if there were any child in the buggy?

By the way, Tei-oh-sho was run yesterday, and assumingly to the chagrin of Mr. N-jima who'd announced that he was going to try his luck on Asukano Roman and Hokko Tarumae, Kopano Rickey has won the race by 3 and a half lengths, towing Nonkono Yume. Hokko Tarumae has been taken over without much fight by Sound True. Luck doesn't seem to stay, eh?

The End

Caterpillar