DAVID CARR

Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter

No taking sides at Doncaster
Impartiality, that's the thing for a reporter. Strict neutrality. Total indifference to who wins or loses.

Except, of course, that you also want to have something to write about. And at Doncaster today the only hope of anything happening remotely newsworthy enough to squeeze into the coverage of the big cards from Goodwood, Galway and Newmarket was Arcano.

Victory for the one-time 2,000 Guineas favourite on his return from a 15-week break could be quite a splash. He has beaten horses as good as Special Duty and Canford Cliffs and would not be at all hard to big up in print.

Defeat and we were in trouble. To say nothing else on the card quite had his sex appeal is to say that nobody else in Lilliput quite had the height of Gulliver.   

Needless to say, he got beaten. Last of five in fact. At odds-on. Although his trainer Brian Meehan did his best to put a brave face on it, and Bryan Smart was full of enthusiasm for the winner Vittoria. And they do say bad news sells better than good.

Scant consolation for the 3,000-odd Unison members and their families who swelled the crowd on a day sponsored by the union - regional secretary Cliff Williams was interviewed beforehand and when asked for a winner he really stuck his neck out and nominated Arcano. Perhaps he ought to take advice from his comrades at the Morning Star - their tipster is currently showing up his capitalist rivals and is in second place in the Racing Post naps table.

Two mysteries to leave you with. First, what is it with Sagamore? Apparently it means the head of some native American tribes, and it is the name of half a dozen different places in the USA. And it also seems to be a hot ticket with racehorse owners.

Sagamore won the Cambridgeshire at Newmarket for Frankie Durr in 1983. Sagamore won the Irish 2,000 Guineas at Phoenix Park for Kevin Prendergast in 1989. A third version made his debut today and he looks to have ability as well, judged on the way he came from an impossible position to finish second in a maiden.

Second, what is it with women of a certain age? Of an age when they would not dream of allowing their daughters out in public in suggestive clothing. Yet are quite happy to go racing on 'Carla's hen weekend' wearing bright pink cowboy hats and individually printed T-shirts identifying them as 'Condom Claire', 'Horny Helen', 'Porno Pam' and a few others I dare not repeat here.