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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Flat? Jumps? It's all good with McCain
Good to see people mobbing a local hero. Crowding round chaotically to see if it is really him.
Hanging on his every word. Flash bulbs popping all the while as they get a picture to commemorate their encounter with greatness.
Twice it happened at Chester this afternoon. Just a shame that neither time was the 'mobbee' the right man.
First up was Wayne Rooney, ambushed in the parade ring before his runner in the opener. I've been in many media scrums but this was different, with the hacks joined by hordes of photographers snapping continually and a host of TV crews - it's not often that you seean 'ITV News' umbrella on a racecourse.
As with many a famous person, he's nothing like you'd imagine from TV. Scarcely any taller than fellow Manchester United striker and racing enthusiast Michael Owen and not the powerfully-built bull of a man you might expect either.
Wonder how keen he'll be to come racing again if he fears another mobbing - and Pippy's finishing last would not have had him itching to come back either.
Another scrum developed just outside the parade ring in mid-afternoon. Just racegoers this time. Each seeking to get a photo with their mobile phone or an autograph on their racecard. Comedian John Bishop was the one to draw a crowd just because he happened to be out in public. The pitfalls of celebrity.
Donald McCain, the very model of modest, home-loving self-effacement, would hate it. But he's the one who should be carried shoulder-high and hailed as a hero.
Winning the biggest race of the year at his local track. For the second year running. Having first and second to boot. Not bad for a man who's supposed to be a jumps trainer.
Though it felt more like Chepstow than Chester, rain falling for much of the day. Turning the ground soggy enough that they daren't risk starting stalls for a couple of races.
And causing the ambulance to get stuck in the mud before the opener. Any casual viewer who watched the farce of the Grand National start and thentuned to Channel 4 today due to the media hoopla about Mr Rooney, only to see a gang of men pushing it clear, must wonder whether it really is 2012.
As did many of an increasingly frustrated press pack when the wifi got steadily worseand worse - several decamped to the adjoining hotel in search of a service.
No complaints about the usual excellent spread laid on at lunch. Bar the photographer who remarked: "It's tasteless, this chicken" - only to be toldit was actually fish.
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