On the brink of something remarkable - David Carr - UK Horse Racing Blogs

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DAVID CARR

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DAVID CARR'S RSS FEED POSTED AT 3:31pm 27 NOV 2011

On the brink of something remarkable

Kauto Star's four Betfair Chases and Overturn's Northumberland Plate/Fighting Fifth double are all very well but the north could be in line for something really astonishing next month.

Should racing go ahead at Carlisle on the Sunday before Christmas it will complete a full house - the track will have gone through the entire year without a single abandonment.

Which is quite remarkable given the weather you can get in this part of the world. If it is not snowing, it is frosty, it is blowing a gale or the rain is coming down in torrents. And the winter is even worse.

But they're not fairweather folk up here and they can race when conditions are less than serene.

Like today [Sunday] when the ground was so squelchy that a different part of the parade ring had to be used as the winners enclosure because the normal area was too soggy.

David Carr: supporting the Movember campaign

PICTURE: David Cramphorn

And the wind made it extraordinarily difficult to collect updates to Monday's 'stable tour extra' - mobile phone reception is awful inside the press room so I had to stand outside, juggling pad, newspaper and phone and attempting to make out what various trainers were saying while all the while battling a howling gale.

Not a top-class card this afternoon but it must be nice to have your passing commemorated with a race named in your honour, as the late Malcolm Hopkinson was today.

Nice to have a write-up in the racecard too though Mr H might have been wincing from beyond the grave to read his family recalling that he used to: "Study the form every day, choose numerous selections, rarely back any of them and amend them once he had seen the results!"

Not that you have to be dead to have a race named after you. The handicap hurdle honoured the 50th birthday of Ivie Woods, whose claim to fame is that she co-founded the Diageo pension scheme. Probably not something you want to shout about given what has happened to pension schemes in recent years.

Dangerous business this Movember campaign - if you don't believe me go to http://bit.ly/vUnXik

Now you see the risks we are exposing ourselves to for such a good cause, why not make a donation at http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1744862/.