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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
National day of triumph and disaster
Another Saturday, another of the world's biggest events and another sombre occasion when the tale on the track is as much an obituary as a race analysis.
For Fox Hunt, Bronze Cannon and Grand Vent on Dubai World Cup night read Synchronised and According To Pete at Aintree.
No need to talk you through events on the track as you'll have seen exactly what happened.
The difference here as opposed to the UAE is that the National has 'form', with changes made to three fences and the race conditions in the light of the two fatalities last year as well. So the deaths quickly became the story, everyone dashing for reaction from the course, the BHA and the RSPCA.
The story will run and run and this is not the time or place for a knee-jerk reaction, just a pause to remember two gutsy chasers who were each in the midst of a career-best season - and of all those suffering in their loss.
Nor is this really the time or place for a light-hearted look back on events earlier in the afternoon, though it's worth mentioning the enormous cheerthat rang out a few minutes after Simonsig's race.
Not from punters who'd belatedly recognised the winner's quality but from racegoers who'd just seen Liverpool score at Wembley on television. Then another a few minutes after Sprinter Sacre's success - again, not because the crowd had just realised how good a chaser he is but because they'd just seen a referee blowing his whistle 200 miles away.
Clearly racing is not enough even for those who've paid a prettypenny to get in.
One casualty in the press room. My Post colleague Lee Mottershead reached into his jacket pocket for a pen and impaled himself on the pin attached to the visitor's pass from his last trip to the BBC - fortunately it only drew a little blood, it was his left hand and he carried on through the pain.
No room in my jacket pocket for anything extraneous due to all the money in there.
That's no tribute to my punting ability, rather a side effect of being membership secretary of the Horserace Writers & Photographers Associaton.
The AGM on Grand National day is the perfect time to collect overdue subscriptions and few people carry cheque books anymore so I ended up with a huge wedge of £20 notes - if the police stop me on the way home I'll be taken for a drug dealer.
There was an extra incentive to stump up your £25 today as only fully paid-up members were eligible to vote in the committee election, 14 candidates fighting for 12 places, result to be announced early next week - perhaps somebody else will have the bulging pockets next week.
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