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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Rely on Robin to be calm in a crisis
Anyone can be a good guy when they are winning; it takes class to be just as amenable when things go wrong.
Robin Bastiman had the world eating out of his hand when Borderlescott was at his Nunthorpe Stakes-winning peak, never tiring of the limelight, answering every call and giving yet another interview full of droll Yorkshire wit.
Less occasion for humour this evening at Wolverhampton, where his Lizzy's Dream was backed all the way down from 20-1 into 9-4 favourite on his handicap debut.
Which wouldn't have taken a huge wad of cash considering the size of the betting market on a Friday night race on the all-weather but still needed a tidy sum of money for a small yard.
Which would have made it all the more painful to see the sprinter lose his chance by fluffing the start, running on for a never-dangerous fifth - beaten under four lengths to launch a thousand 'what might have beens'.
Yet Bastiman was not cursing his luck, not shooing away the press nor kicking the cat - or the jockey.
"It happens, we had to have the money on first time but he was still a bit green, his draw didn't help, there are a lot of modest races and I'm sure he'll win one," was the equable, calm way he shrugged it off - you'd have thought he'd done nothing worse than lost his racecard.
A card which, incidentally had suffered a curious attack of formality, listing the commentator as 'Mr M. Cattermole'.
And it was clearly catching - one trainer signed off with a 'thank you Mr Carr' after our chat in the winner's enclosure.
BTW, heaven forbid that anyone should venture to suggest that people in the racing press room are not always at the cutting edge of modern culture but one inhabitant was flummoxed today when he received a text message which started 'FYI'.
"Oh that's what it means," he said on being told it stood for for your information, "I thought someone had been on the wine again."
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