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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Back with a bang on the Knavesmire
WHAT a place to make your comeback. No working yourself back in gently. Straight in at the deep end with the opening day of the Ebor meeting at York.
Though it was probably easier to be here than at Carlisle today. All the winning trainers were on hand, even will o' the wisps like Sirs Michael Stoute and Henry Cecil. And if you can't find something to write about on a Group 1 day like this you ought to find another job.
Of course, we started a day later this year to allow the Ebor to be run on Saturday. I checked. Nobody turned up a day early by mistake. And today's crowd was well up on the number who made it for the first day last year - though that is not saying much as the Tuesday was always a scandalously poorly-attended afternoon.
Those who were here early witnessed a sight which cannot ever have been seen on a racecourse before. Technical problems seemed to have hit the huge viewing screen opposite the Ebor Stand so that it could only operate in black and white - almost certainly a first as colour television became universal well before big screens were ever thought of.
George Baker won the opening race of the meeting on Secret Asset and revealed it was his first ever winner at York. He was sure he had ridden at least one before but apparently Jimmy Fortune had put him right and revealed he had drawn a blank here throughout a career which stretches back to 1999. How lucky to have friends on hand to point out your deficiencies.
I was accosted in the press room this afternoon by a (the?) loyal reader, complaining that this blog has not been updated for a week anda half. Not been slacking, just on holiday.
Returned to a letter on the doormat from a former jockey, a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner. Dido Harding had written to me - though it was in her role as chief executive of the TalkTalk Group, rather than as the owner and former rider of Cool Dawn. And I suspect that her offer of cheap phone calls and broadband may have been extended to several other people too. Interesting that she does not use the 'Honourable' - to which she is entitled as granddaughter of the first Baron Harding of Petherton - on her junk mail.
While I was away, I uncovered further evidence of exactly who is the biggest name in racing. It came in a second-hand bookshop in Grosmont, a village on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The only racing book in the building was the same one as the sole racing publication in Yeadon public library. Not the form book or a Timeform annual. Or even James Lambie's award-winning 'The Story Of Your Life'. But 'From Red To Amber' the - admittedly very readable - autobiography of Ginger McCain. Who is clearly still seen as the man in the eyes of the outside world.
An interesting thought for Racing For Change to ponder.
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