|
DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Blown away by an ill wind
Remember all that stuff about 'things can only get better?' Absolute rubbish. Forget every word of it.
Arriving at Ayr this morning was like turning up at a bombsite. Rails blown down everywhere. The winning post toppled. Champagne and racecard huts overturned. A huge tree lying on its side at the entrance to the hotel car park. It was still blowing a gale too.
None of that was necessarily a problem, with the forecast suggesting strongly that the wind was going to ease by mid-morning.
Rails can be put back. The winning post can be re-erected. And it was unlikely that many peoplehad been planning on sitting outside on the champagne lawn sipping Bollinger this afternoon.
But a damaged tree was hanging ominously over the car park behind the stand, threatening imminent downfall and making the whole area unsafe.
That just happened to be where the Racetech scanner van needs to work from - it could not park near enough to operate. And no Racetech scanner van means no commentary, no pictures and - crucially - no public address system.
Which meant that racing could not go ahead. No PA means no meeting. It is a condition of safety at sports grounds that a PA is in place so as to relay emergency messages.
Perfectly understandable, if entirely frustrating for the groundstaff who had already been hard at work repairing the wind damage and for clerk of the course Emma Marley who had been clinging to a forecast that the wind was due to ease off after 10.30am (which was right, though everything is relative and it is still pretty blowy as I write this at 11.30am).
But even had racing gone ahead it would have a pretty miserable afternoon - transport difficulties had already taken a big chunk out of the card and by the time the meeting was abandoned 11 horses had been withdrawn due to travel problems.
So it is an early start on the drive back through the gales down to Yeadon. Lunch at Tebay services rather than the Ayr press room. If I make it that far.
Comments