Monday, October 06, 2008

After the Arc

The BBC's Arc coverage certainly succeeded in conveying the excitement and sense of expectation from the track; it was unfortunate that post-race analysis had to be cut short following the delayed start. I didn't think Zarkava would win, but I certainly wouldn't have appeared on national television, as Rishi Persad did, saying 'If Zarkava wins, I'll walk home.' I wonder how far north of Paris he is...

One small correction - Zarkava's win from stall number one was the first time a horse has won from that berth since 1964.

From the sublime to the ridiculuous - the false start in the earlier Prix de l'Abbaye threatened to cast a cloud over the whole meeting. Stall 17, housing Jeremy Noseda's Fleeting Spirit, failed to open. The race was eventually re-run at the end of the day with Marchand D'Or collecting the spoils.

With everyone's attention on Longchamp, Wacky Macky Bear's victory in the 10th Mascot Grand National at Huntingdon has gone practically unnoticed. The Saffron Waldron Town mascot was winning the race for the second year in succession.

Christmas is coming. Two books on my present list are Ed Whitaker's 'In The Frame: Great Racing Photographs' and Andrew Longmore's 'Kieren Fallon: The Biography'. The latter text doesn't appear to be available in hardback at the moment; according to Waterstone's, the paperback is due to be published in February 2009.

Steve Coogan is to star as Bob 'Bing' Crosby in 'Sunshine', a bittersweet drama from the BBC about a workshy binman who develops an addiction to gambling; the first episode is tomorrow at 9.00pm. It brings to mind Robbie Fox from twenty odd years ago in a series I can't remember the name of. In all honesty this doesn't really make much appeal - I'll probably see how it starts off.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you mean Robbie Box, not Fox! TLD