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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Pssst, want to know one for next year's Paddy Power?
Prozac and counselling are all very well but spending a few minutes with a racehorse trainer is not a bad way to combat depression either.
Still growing the mo: David Carr PICTURE: David Carr
Not just because once you hear their gruesome tales of bad jockeys, bad payers and bad prize money your own woes pale into insignificance.
But also because they always have high hopes for the future - they have to or they'd give the game up - and it is easy to be swept along by their optimism that a big winner is just around the corner.
That's how it was today, ringing round for the add-on feature on yards not already featured in our Stable Tour series.
Rare indeed was the trainer who did not have a fancy plan or two up their sleeves, with no prize too distant to be firmly in their sights.
You'll have to read Monday's paper to see who is targeting next March's Coral Cup with a progressive hurdler they'll send straight to Cheltenham without a prep run, who is eyeing the 2012 Summer Plate at Market Rasen and who already reckons they have got a likely type for the Paddy Power Gold Cup - only 356 days to go.
But I am afraid you will not find details of the horse a trainer did not wantto include 'because the owner wants to have a bet on him' - I'll try to mention the animal's name here when his appearance is imminent (though previous experience suggests that being informed in advance of gambles 'going down' is rarely a routeto riches).
And you don't have to work in racing to get tips supposedly from the horse's mouth.
On a recent visit to the local Indian takeaway, the proprietor vouchsafed to me the name of a North Yorkshire-trained sprinter who was being lined to land a gamble and pay the Christmas expenses.
I'll flag him up here when he is due to run, though for the history students among you the horse shares his name with a 19th century Irish Nationalist leader.
If he delivers the goods there are many worse things to do with your winnings than to make a charitable donation - http://mobro.co/davidcarr is the place to go if you want to make an early downpayment.
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