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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Hoping for a full house to pay tribute to The Tatling
THE end is nigh.
Friday's hero was all very well but today we had a proper racehorse to celebrate. Yes, Denman was a worthy sort, tough, game and all that. Popular too.
But just six years between his first race and his last? Only 24 races in all over that time? That makes him a fly-by-night will o' the wisp compared to The Tatling - for whom 24 races is a season not a career.
He made his debut in May 1999 and will have his 176th and last run tomorrow. If there were any justice, a full house would turn up to cheer him into retirement at Wolverhampton, with Jeremy Paxman and Piers Morgan vying to get the first post-race interview.
There's been plenty of quality to go with the quantity, so that the sprinter claimed at Catterick back in 2003 was one of the very best in Europe at his peak.
Second in four Group 1s, including three straight Nunthorpes, and winner of a King's Stand Stakes and finally set for retirement at the age of 14.
A tremendous tale to discuss this morning with the ever-jovial Milton Bradley, a trainer who looks and sounds exactly as Father Christmas would if he were from the South Wales border.
Well worth all the separate 'furniture' - his life in numbers, a focus on his Group 1 near-misses and a look at some of the 37 different jockeys who rode him, several of whom beat him into retirement by many years. (For those who don't work in newspapers, 'furniture' is the associated bumf that accompanies a major story. And before you ask, no I have no idea why it should be called that).
Monday Jury duties as well today. If you want to second guess the experts, the posers for this weekend were:
1. How impressed were you with Baby Mix?
2. Do you see Join Together as a horse for the SunAlliance or National Hunt Chase?
3. How do you rate Grandouet's Champion Hurdle chances based on Saturday's performance?
4. Would you go to the Champion Hurdle or World Hurdle with Oscar Whisky?
5. Do you fancy Rubi Light to improve on last year's third place in the Ryanair Chase?
6. Which other horse caught your eye this weekend?
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