3:42 p.m. Speaking of performing well on Kokura race tracks, Triomphe has also performed well on Kokura though it was 1800 meters. If the horse can handle 1800 meters, 2,000 meters wouldn't be so different.

My recognition is that Kokura is won by Kokura specialists. But the thing is, Triomphe would probably be the most favored and the most favored hasn't come within 3rd place for the past 4 years...

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Caterpillar

2:56 p.m. I wondered if there were any other horses that has performed well in Kokura 1800 meters to 2,000 meters, so have done some searching.

A T Thunder, Strong Titan, Meadowlark, and Reiho Romance respectively, have come in either 1st or 2nd place in the past although they were in lower class races. That means that these horses will not perform worse just because of the course. If Kokura is one of the courses they do well at, then they must improve their performances at least from their previous races.

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Caterpillar

5:13 p.m. The barriers have been announced for both Leaopard Stakes and Kokura Kinen. It's Friday all right.

Looks like the top three favored horses have all drawn outer pots, Triomphe in 11, Satono CHronicle in 10 and San Martin in 12. Think it wouldn't be much of a problem considering the number of horses in this race. Besides, I got screwed when I weighted the horses in the inner posts.

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Caterpillar

2:59 p.m. Since I've been losing every week, no one might be interested though I'll call it anyway.

My key horse for Kokura Kinen is Satono Chronicle. It might be just a prep race for the autumn G1 however, the horse has a chance to perform better than Tennno-sho after a break. On the wheel would be Strong Titan, Stoneware, Mount Gold, A T Thunder and Triomphe.

As for the Leopard Stakes in Niigata, it might be fun to give a shot on win and place of Yida Pegasus if it really rains as the forecast predicts.

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Caterpillar

This time of all times... I won a trio but I haven't bought the tickets.

I had some troubles with my laptop and had to reinstall the OS. Troubles kept popping up even after the reinstallation and I spent the whole day attending my laptop. I would like to have an opportunity some day, to announce a comment on how Microsoft is not responsible for their products.

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Caterpillar

3:15 p.m. As I had been tending my laptop, I haven't even seen the race run. Have just been to check the results and discovered that I had a clean hit from 1st place to 6th, except for Reiho Romance that came in 4th place. Sigh. It's like this when you win.

The least compensation is that my laptop seems to have recovered its performance and that the payout wasn't so big...

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Caterpillar

3:37 p.m. Looks like Ojuchousan's next race has been decided. The crew had announced earlier that Oju's goal after he's won the 5 million class was to win the Arima Kinen at year-end. Due to this, its seems they've decided it would be better to try him out on the same course, same distance and picked Kujukuri Tokubetsu, run on Nakayama turf, 2500 meters on September 22nd.

As Oju has only won a lower class race on flat turf, again we will have to wait and see if he could run in the race, because if the number of entry goes over 12 which is the limit for this race, Oju can be excluded and won't be able to compete in the race. However, the number of entries for this race has reached the limit only once in the past 8 years, so there is a good chance for Oju to run it.

If he runs, the race will gather attraction as well as the last time, and in case he wins it will definitely add more excitement to the year-end Grand Prix. The rider will be Yutaka Take, not to mention.

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Caterpillar

7:21 p.m. I've been tied up at work and just had a few minutes to take a glimpse of Sekiya Kinen.

I've always thought that winning a mile race on Niigata turf is like drawing straws and I don't have a piece of confidence in calling it. The glimpse I took on the past few years' results seem to suggest that horses that go up front have a bit of advantage, but that's about all I could gather in such a short time. It's the pre-vacation rush of work that's driving me mad.

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Caterpillar

2:57p.m. Today I had a bit more time so I checked out the past results a bit more closely.

My impression is that the winning time is fast as well as the last three furlongs, so it would be better to go up front. Otherwise, you won't be able to take over the horses in the front. For the same reason, inner post horses would have more advantage, unless horses starting from the outside posts have enough speed to go up front. Hopefully, that would help me choose the right horses.

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Caterpillar

4:21 p.m. The barriers for Sekiya Kinen has been announced. The top 3 favored Primo Scene, Reliable Ace and A Shin Twinkle drew post number 12, 6 and 4, respectively. Following what I've written yesterday, it might be hard for horses like Reliable Ace as he tends to stay behind.

News has also come in that Lucky Lilac is scratcing off from Rose Stakes, a prep for Shuka-sho. Almond Eye is also winging Shuka-sho, so both of the top horses will have a question mark on their condition, I suppose.

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Caterpillar

5:18 p.m. My first day of summer vacation. Not that I'd be able to enjoy any luxury refreshment, and there's more work to do than usual thanks to the troubles with my laptop.

Still, I strived to call Sekiya Kinen. My key is Primo Scene. Let's shut our eyes to the fact that she's the most favored, as she's got a chance to do well. My only concern is the rider. On the wheel would be Frontier, A Shin Twinkle, Shonan Anthem, Lord Quest and Checchino.

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Caterpillar

9:20 p.m. Lord Quest didn't do so well as I'd expected and One To One came in 2nd instead. Well, at least I got the key horse right.

Have went out jogging to vent out my stress. And now watching the finals of Women's Soft Ball World Championship. I've always thought Ueno is a great pitcher, but have re-realized that watching this game. Oh god, we've earned a score to make it 4 to 3 and entering the bottom of hte 8th inning! Nail-biting!

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Caterpillar

9:05 p.m. Our softball team has unfortunately lost the game to miss the gold medal in the World Championships, but that wasn't just because Ueno got hit after she'd thrown more than 240 balls throughout the double-header. I believe it was because there wasn't another pitcher to take her place.

Coming up this weekend is the Sapporo Kinen. Names like Crocosmia, Go For The Summit, Makahiki and Mozu Katchan is on the entry list. What caught my eye was the name of Sungrazer, though. The horse has performed well in shorter distance from 1400m to 1600m. Why 2,000m? They say that the main rider and the trainer has been mentioning about a mile distance getting too short for the horse, but is that the reason? What makes them think so in the first place? Mysterious.

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Caterpillar

7:40 p.m. Actually, there was a time when Sungrazer had raced on 2,000m turf, but that was when he was 2 years old and didn't win either. That was back in 2016 and Sungrazer had lost in 5th place.

Of course, that one race alone does not speak for the horse's performance in longer distance however, I just can't see the reason of this challenge as well as its timing, now. It's hard to tell if the Sungrazer crew are seeking to win a longer distance G1 or just thinking Sapporo Kinen as a prep for the autumn Mile Championship. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Meanwhile, Yoshio has earned himself another 3rd place prize in Saga, Summer Champion (G3). His regular spot.

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Caterpillar

9:24 p.m. On the expected win odds, Makahiki is ranked 3rd as of today. So the world has finally realized that Deep Impact descendants peak out early and their performance tend to decline as they get older.

Besides, Sapporo Kinen will be Makahiki's come-back race after a bone fracture. Even Grass Wonder couldn't come within 3rd place in his first race after a fracture. And Grass Wonder is one of the greatest race horses in the past twenty or so years. What makes people think that Makahiki can? Additionally, there are only 2 Deep Impact descendants that has come within 3rd place in Sapporo Kinen for the past 7 years after their debut, Harpstar and Decypher, not to mention Harpstar carried lighter weight because she was 3 years old.

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Caterpillar

7:22 p.m. Every summer when this time comes around, Sapporo Kinen reminds me of Seiun Sky. He was a fast and tough front runner almost always taking the lead, but couldn't perform well after his injury. He won Sapporo Kinen carrying the heaviest weight 59 kg, though it was the first time he didn't take the lead. I intuitively felt that something was wrong with the horse although I couldn't point out exactly what. And that was the last time he'd won. The horse got injured.

I started my betting carrier almost together with Seiun Sky's generation. There were great horses back then in that generation, Special Week, Grass Wonder, El Condor Passa, King Halo, and f course, Seiun Sky. Impressive generation that still stays in my memory.

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Caterpillar

8:57 p.m. It's Friday and my short summer vacation has already come to an end while the barrier draw for Sapporo Kinen has been announced.

The top three favored, Mozu Katchan, Mikki Swallow and Makahiki have respectively drawn post numbers 15, 14 and 5. It seems as though even the barrier draw is against Makahiki. Perhaps Mikki Swallow, too. As for Mozu Katchan, it looks like luck is on her side since she wouldn't like being squashed between other horses.

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Caterpillar

3:09 p.m. Back to work. I slept over from the first day back at work. Not a good start, I say.

My key horse for Sapporo Kinen is Go For The Summit. Don't think he'll win, but what I'm asking for is a horse that can come within 3rd place. On the wheel would be Martese Apogee, Astra Emblem, Neo Realism, Mikki Swallow and maybe, Mozu Katchan. Our trainig squad doesn't think she's ready yet. As for Makahiki and Sungrazer, they've suddenly been pushed up to the top two favored in win odds which only seems suspicious to me. They'd either perform very well or very bad.

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Caterpillar

4:43 p.m. It was the "very well" side. Sungrazer came in first followed by Makahiki and Mozu Katchan in Sapporo Kinen. I hate to be stubborn but Makahiki still didn't win.

I cut out Astra Emblem as he had gained too much weight. That was an apparent sign that he had left-over damage from his previous high performance. Instead I added Mozu Katchan however, Go For The Summit sank in 7th place so my call turned out to be another total blunder.

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Caterpillar

3:09 p.m. This week it's going to be the Keeneland Cup, a sprint G3.

After all this loss, I don't feel like winning at all. Keeneland Cup is running, high school baseball at Koushien is reaching the final match, summer is almost ending though the temperature that has been relatively cool for the past couple of days is bound to go up again. Ugh.

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Caterpillar

1:59 p.m. A 1200m race is not my specialty and I don't even know where to start from while looking at the entry form of Keeneland Cup.

You may all know that I've been adding loss after loss to my mountain of losses during the summer races, though I've learned from experience that what's important in such hard times is to not change one's stance. Physical and mental freshness is what I precious most in calling races, so I will stick to that until I see the light.

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Caterpillar

4:10 p.m. Scanning through the entry form of Keeneland Cup, I recognized a familiar name; Let's Go Donki!

Considering the rivals on this entry form, she must be more than one step ahead the others. After all, she's been coming in 2nd in G1. The horse has got all the more reason to be favored in the win odds. But the thing is, she hasn't won since last February and that was a G3 race for mares only.

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Caterpillar

3:17 p.m. Menwhile, the most favored in win odds, Nac Venus is slightly taking the lead against Let's Go Donki. Given that her rider is going to be João Moreira and she's ayear younger than Donki, the odds can be said plausible.

Things might change depending on the track condition, though since the typhoon is bound to head up north after it lands in Kansai area. It's expected to reach Hokkaido on Saturday, so that might affect the tracks of Sapporo. Must stay alert.

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Caterpillar

2:29 p.m. The barriers for Keeneland Cup has been announced to reveal Nac Venus in post number 11, Let's Go Donki in 6 and Moon Quake in 5.

I'm afraid it wasn't a very good draw for Donki and Moon Quake unless the Sapporo track remains soft affected by the typhoon. I'd like to expect a good performance from Travesura, a 3-year-old, though it's hard to think Yuichi is going to win two weeks in a row.

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Caterpillar

2:30 p.m. Danon Smash another 3-year-old has suddenly been pushed up to the most favored as of this morning. Since then, the odds has been moving rapidly.

My key for Keeneland Cup is Travesura. Being able to run the race with lighter weight is a big advantage when the distance is short. On the wheel would be Moon Quake, Danon Smash, Cambell Junior, and perhaps Let's Go Donki. I'm going to decide after checking her gain and loss.

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Caterpillar

4:28 p.m. The key horse should have been a 3-year-old but THE OTHER 3-year-old, not Travesura. I'd also negelected to check the track condition, so I know what and where to correct next.

It was around the end of last week when I realized that I'd completely forgotten (not again) an important element in calling a race. It's to decide whether the most favored horse will perform well or not. This decision must be made in the first step while calling a race, because that will be the base to build your calling on; whether the race is going to go wild or sound.

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Caterpillar

3:30 p.m. Looking back on Keeneland Cup, I had a piece of mind that put an alert on Peisha Felicita since she had a recoed of performing well on Sapporo tracks, but I decided against it thinking that the turf condition would be firm by Sunday which was a total mistake. The soft track condition also merited Nac Venus, too. Travesura wasn't a bad choice though I should have kept him on the wheel, not the key.

There you go, now we all see that I know what I'm doing, I'm hoping it will get me back on the right course.

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Caterpillar

2:06 p.m. The expected win odds for Niigata Kinen held this weekend is telling me the most favored is Blast One Piece. The name rings a bell. It's the 3-year-old that came in 5th place in the Japanese D'erby.

I thought he might have high potential at the time and remember including him on my wheel. His loss in the D'erby could have been because of the damage from his former race, Mainichi-hai. And the horse has lost against Wagnerian by only a length. No wonder he's being favored.

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Caterpillar

6:17 p.m. Have been busy today so just took a glimpse at the records of the past couple of years of Niigata Kinen. And unfortunately, there hasn't been a 3-year-old that has come within 3rd place in the past. Well, at least the past 5 years.

I can't say anything for sure as there were years that were run without the entry of 3-year-olds at all. The few samples all sank low but perhaps that was because those horses were not top level horses like Blast One Piece. Usually, such potential 3-year-olds do not enter this race since they have the prep races for Kikka-sho or Tenno-sho.

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Caterpillar

4:02 p.m. The most favored stays the same although it's still Thursday. Not that I'm going to trust the odds after what happened last week.

Speaking of Blast One Piece, he might perform better on soft track as his best performance was Yurikamome-sho which was run on soft Tokyo track. Rain is expected in Niigata on Saturday, so the track condition will largely depend on how much it will rain on Saturday, I guess.

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Caterpillar

2:31 p.m. Time for the barrier draw... how come there are only 13 entries?? I thought there were more until yesterday...

Blast One Piece, the most favored has drawn post number 1, Gruyere is in post number 10 while Seda Brillantes drew 13. Data from the past results seem to be against Blast One Piece so I might have to dig out a different, more potential horse to tag on my key.

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Caterpillar