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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Mud, mud, glorious mud
It was just like being at nearby Aintree or Bangor. Bottomless ground. Northern connections dominating. Starting with success for McCain and Lee.
Graham 'Amberleigh House' Lee knows all about the mud from his days as a jump jockey so you'd expect him to know what to do when riding in the sort of surface that only a British spring can serve up - no fences to worry about either, now that he's switched to the Flat.
And Donald McCain admitted that the fact his horses are trained through the worst of the winter weather must give them some sort of edge when conditions turn nasty on the level.
All ofwhich made Absinthe a 'good thing' in hindsight for the opener - which as on Wednesday was run exactly seven minutes late, due to delays involving the ambulance and medical provision.
Richard Fahey is another who has first-hand experience of ploughing through the mud on a bleak jumps track from his days as a jockey and he will now bid for a first Yorkshire-trained Derby winner since Dante in 1945 after his Mickdaam took the Chester Vase.
The winner has been dismissed as a 33-1 shot by the bookmaker but they were little more impressed by Treasure Beach last year and he turned out okay.
Much less fraught day in the press room as the wifi worked, wonder of wonders.
Plenty of people had plenty of previews to write and plenty of calls to make before racing which can make for an unusual atmosphere, unavoidably eavesdropping on each other's conversations.
So that we all got to hear the impassioned pleading of oneguy whose opening gambit to an unknown quarry was: "Sorry to bother you but I'm on desperation boulevard."
Clever clogs here was ahead of the game, having written most of my set-up piece about Sea Moon and Bonfire before heading off for the races - only to get the call from the news desk en route informing me that the first of those was a non-runner.
Thought for a second then texted back that I'd rewrite it, with Brown Panther taking his place - which ledto the delicious discovery that predictive text renders last year's St Leger runner-up as 'Brown Panties'.
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