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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Better luck for Bill
How many mirrors must you have broken, ladders walked under and black cats kicked to be unlucky enough to find your hopes ruined by firm ground during this soggy spring and early summer?
That was the misfortune Bill Turner suffered after bring hat-trick-seeking favourite Judy In Disguise all the way up from Dorset to Beverley for the Hilary Needler Trophy during that tiny window of decent weather a fortnight ago.
So none could begrudge his winning with Lord Avonbrook on his return visit today, particularly as the trainer is not one to belabour his misfortunes.
His record with two-year-olds suggests that he deserves to have more than just 20 horses but rather than dwell on that he merely stresses that he will 'keep trying, though it is getting harder'.
Not everyone is so stoic and a fellow trainer, who had better remain nameless, could not wait to express his displeasure at not being able to stand precisely where they wanted to watch a race today.
Change comes to everyone, even us.
No sandwiches in the press room and the previous ordering system had also been scrapped today, replaced by vouchers which entitled the bearer to claim a sandwich, a packet of crisps, a snack and a drink from the nearby 1690 Bar (named after the year that racing first started here).
A thoroughly modern and practical set-up, full credit to course supremo Sally Iggulden.
Folk with two important-sounding job titles are often too grand to bother themselves with actually doing any work but that certainly doesn't apply to Miss S, who wears the hats of both chief executive and clerk of the course.
She's been seen wielding a last-minute broom in the winner's enclosure before now and today she had a dog on a lead as she was out assessing the going at lunchtime.
"I am walking the chairman's chihuahua," she said. "And that's not a euphemism."
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