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DAVID CARR

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

DAVID CARR'S RSS FEED POSTED AT 4:06pm 8 NOV 2011

'Stars In Their Eyes' at Sedgefield

JOHN SMITH'S were sponsoring this afternoon and so they brought along the trophy for the Grand National, plonked it in the winner's enclosure and allowed selected racegoers to have their picture taken with it - so they can pretend to the grandchildren in years to come they once won the race.

Great marketing ploy, though it ran into an early snag with the pre-racing visit of a group of children on an educational trip.

They were going to be pictured with the trophy until somebody spotted the very obvious 'John Smiths' logo on it and decided that setting a class of schoolboys and schoolgirls up for a potential beer advert might not be such a good idea.

The draw was conducted by Derek Thompson and it was good to see him today - that's not a phrase you often hear and I should stress that the thing that was really good to see was his upper lip.

Looking good - David Carr before his afternoon at Sedgefield

PICTURE: David Carr

He has joined the Movember movement and though he is hardly Emiliano Zapata after just eight days, his growth clearly confused one person - Derek, one of the most famous faces in racing, was called 'Graham' by clerk of the course Phil Tuck in a pre-racing interview. (It is clearly catching as 'Thommo' also called me Graham later in the afternoon.)

Former racing journalist of the year Tim Richards was also on hand to show he is doing his bit for Movember - he is retired but was helping out on the Injured Jockeys' Fund stand (the calendars have just arrived, printed with a 'best guess' as to next year's fixture list thanks to the scandalous delay to the official version).

Incidentally, At The Races's Gordon Brown was asked why he had not lent his face to the fund-raising cause and explained: "With a nose like mine I don't underline it."

Thanks today to press room colleagues Walter Glynn, Peter Kirwin and Darren Owen for their donations - and to that from The Fat Punter (that's his log-in, I promise you). Every amount helps.

Remember to go to http://mobro.co/davidcarr if you want to make a donation.