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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Subtlety is the thing
Reading between the lines, that's the key in racing. Rare is the message shouted from the rooftops - even rarer the one worth hearing.
You need to learn to spot the subtle signs, pick up the slight nuances.
Like owner Andrew Tinkler's arriving by helicopter at Wolverhampton this afternoon in time to see his unraced four-year-old make its debut in a run-of-the-mill maiden.
Trainer's son Richard Hannon jnr was here too. For the first time in at least a couple of years.
It all pointed to Mon Ami Jolie, who did not disappoint, and would have been an even more emphatic winnerbut for a slow start and trouble in running.
Like the subtle way that you could deduce how much of a hindrance a high draw is here from the fact that four non runners in the 5f handicap just happened to have been due to start from stalls 13, 12 ten and nine.
Like the subtle way that the track conveyed the message that fame is only ever temporary.
Keith Deller was a big name when he won the darts world championship back in 1983 but now he appears on a come-on advert above one of the urinals in the gents, which advertises his appearance with Eric Bristow here next month. And spells his name wrong. That wouldn't happen to Phil Taylor.
No such worry for the unambiguously-spelt Charles Castle, who delighted in watching Greenhead High - named after his late wife's school - win and delighted in passing on the fact that he is 77 and still smokes 40 cigarettes a day.
His sprinter won a very competitive 61-75 handicap, a race which caused trainer Richard Ford to disclose his theory that races get harder to win the lower down the scale you go.
"There are only four horses that can winthe Derby but there are 400 who can win a seller so the seller is bound to be more competitive," he said.
It was just as hard to answer the two questions I posed here on Friday, due to an unforgiveable error on my part.
The two races run over longer trips than the Eider Chase are the Grand National and the Midlands Grand National.
But I do hope you did not spend all weekend trying to find the track which stages three races over 4m.Though the Devon Marathon, South West Marathon and Devon National all take place at Exeter the last-named is run over just 3m 6 ½f.
Many, many apologies. All my fault. How embarrassing. Now I know how Ant & Dec and Blue Peter felt.
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