|
DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Diary of a nobody
"Excuse me. Who are you? What do you do?" Never does any harm to be reminded of your own insignificance.
It was a racegoer grabbing my arm as I left the winner's enclosure at Musselburgh today. Up from Sunderland with friends. They'd seen me at Kelso last night and again this afternoon and wondered who on earth I was.
He seemed happy with my explanation - though he was already in a good mood, having backed the first winner Talk Of Saafend who'd apparently nodded at him and neighed as he circled the parade ring.
But not as happy as Robyn Gray.
No, not Robin Gray, the former commentator. 'Sir Robin' whose patrician tones graced 'Coronation Street' and 'Rumpole Of The Bailey' as well as numerous racetracks. But Robyn with a 'y', a 21-year-old lass from Penrith who had just ridden her first winner and could not have looked less like her near-namesake.
Quite a day for firsts.
Grand National-winning jockey Graham Lee rode his first winner since switching to the Flat.
A middle-aged Irishman was clearly at his first race meeting as when he saw a winner being washed down with buckets of water in the parade ring he asked: "Do they do that for the horse's benefit or is it so he looks good in the photographs?"
And my former boss Steve Till was mistaken for a senior citizen for the first time - he played golf on the track this morning and when it came time to pay green fees, he and his younger colleague were asked: "Is it one and a concession?"
Perhaps he should follow my lead and dye his hair - though the brightness of my locks was as nothing to the sparkling glitter of the golden 'racecourse of the year' trophy shining proudly in the weighing-room.
Musselburgh had beaten Haydock and York to the prize at the Betview awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Tuesday, an event hosted by 'legendary sports broadcaster Jeff Stelling' according to the sponsor's website. He's good on Sky Sports but if he's 'legendary' what are Terry Wogan, Jonathan Ross or Sir Peter O'Sullevan? .
No arguing with the write-up on the awards themselves, which honour 'exemplary achievement, ingenuity, creativity and overall hard work' and 'excellence in customer service and social responsibility coupled with tremendous business acumen and innovative thinking' which sums up Bill Farnsworth and his team perfectly.
I do hope you exercised your vote today. Plenty of people round the world don't get the chance to do so - including some in Leeds.
My postal vote never arrived and it turned out that a couple or thousand or so had been lost in the post.
The council told me I could pick up a ballot pack from the town hall but after a couple of increasingly heated phone calls they got the message that the reason I wanted to vote by post vote was that I was 200 miles away in Scotland and finally allowed me a proxy vote.
Comments