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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Long live lion-hearted Lough
Retirements aren't always bad news stories - they're certainly a lot more cheery than obituaries.
Yes, it's sad when a career comes to anend, particularly when it's a here-today, gone-tomorrow Flat star whisked off to stud before the public have even learned how to spell his name.
But it's much sadder when the curtain comes down involuntarily - lest we forget, plenty of horses do not live to enjoy the luxury of pipe and slippers.
So it was good to report today on a well-deserved retirement for doughty hurdler Lough Derg, hale, hearty and sound after a phenomenal nine-season career in which heprobably did more to boost racing's image than any of the Derby winners in that time with the possible exception of Sea The Stars.
Time and again he would thrill the crowds by battling to the hardest of hard-earned victories then turn out again just a week or two later and do it again.
So much so that Tom Scudamore likened him to a Kenyan distance runner, though the jockey was not enamoured with every aspect of the horse who put him on the map and once said: "He moves like Martin Pipe but is so tough it's unbelievable."
Movember: blogger David Carr
PICTURE: David CarrNot that it should have been my story to write but I'd got only as far as Ilkley on my trip to Ayr when I found out that racing had been washed out by heavy rain and had to turn back for a news shift.
Which also incorporated a follow-up on the announcement of the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year shortlist.
Though no jockey made the final ten, Sam Waley-Cohen picked up three votes from the panel of sports editors who make the nominations for the award including, intriguingly, the guy from The Voice - 'Britain's favourite black newspaper'. (Though not all of the electorate seem to take their job entirely seriously judged on the Manchester Evening News's nomination for Dimitar Berbatov, whose Bulgarian nationality disqualifies him from the award and whose form in a less-than-sparkling year would have had even the diehards of the Dimitar Berbatov fan club struggling to justify a vote for him even if he did take out British nationality in double quick time).
And I am indebted to Denise Aldred who spoke to me from Madrid Airport - and phoned back when the line went down - to relate a funeral-parlour-to-winner's-enclosure tale you can read in Sunday's 'I Gotta Horse' feature.
Last day of Movember tomorrow so get in quick if you want to make a donation - http://mobro.co/davidcarr is the place to go.
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