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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Very, very, very keen on Camelot
If you have to have a fault, being too enthusiastic is not a bad one to have.
Excessive zeal never hurt anyone, for all that it may be annoying in anything other than small doses.
It is their boundless keenness that occasionally causes commentator Mark Johnson and broadcaster of the year Matt Chapman to put the odd back up but you know their hearts are in the right place.
And it is a similar story with Aidan O'Brien, whose buzz of enthusiasm in the winner's enclosure after a Group 1 victory could power the National Grid.
Now, part of his job is to act as PR man for Coolmore, promoting their horses so as to impress any mare-owners who may happen to be listening.
But he does have plenty of animals whose talents would bring a smile to the face of a statue - and anyone would have been excited after the way Camelot won the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster this afternoon, scarcely coming off the bridle as he quickened stylishly from last to first.
So the trainer is easily forgiven the torrent of 'unbelievables', 'exceptionals' and 'something out of the ordinarys' - and being asked when they first thought he was special and responding 'when they saw him at the sales'.
Mind you, Camelot may be Sea Bird, Pegasus and Champion the Wonder Horse all rolled into one but he is still decidedly unlikely to win the 2013 Derby, for which one bookmaker quoted him straight after his win.
And Richard Guest actually out-zealed O'Brien when Ted's Brother won the closing apprentice handicap, saying: "I think he is the best horse Ihave got and he could be the best I have trained - and I have had a Group 1 winner."
Which suggests that 2012 could be a big year for a three-year-old who was winning off a BHA mark of just 72 here.
Lovely euphemism in today's racecard.
Opposite details of the last ten winners of the Racing Post Trophy was an advert for 'Bentley's', which calls itself 'Doncaster's only gentleman's club'.
Which inspires thoughts of the Groucho or the Garrick, though the accompanying picture of a shapely lass in her underwear hints that they not be the type of place it models itself on.
And the promise of 'an array of stunning dancers', 'private dance booths' and 'continuous live stage shows' suggests that this is probably not the sort of venue for a true gentleman, even if house champagne is only £25 a bottle and the club stays open until 6.00am.
So the mind boggles when you are invited to 'Get down and dirty this season' a few pages later - until you realise that is actually the strapline for an advert of jump racing in Yorkshire this winter.
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