A Week At The Races - Wednesday

Funny isn’t it?


You would think having a day off from going racing would be a heck of a lot easier – yet today I haven’t actually stopped.


First of all this morning I had to go and buy a new digital camera. I have, or had, two - a digital SLR which is my “for best” camera and a compact which I use for day to day. Unfortunately I left my compact in the car when we had the recent cold snap and the minus five temperatures actually shattered the sensor in the camera rendering it useless. As I am visiting a new course tomorrow and I want some photos, but don’t want to lug the SLR around I have had to buy a new compact.


Well shopping done it was time to track down the weights for the handicaps at Cheltenham and then update the web site – sounds easy but I have been doing the updates for almost six hours now and am only half way there.


Actually I have been doing other things as well, including getting my racecards ready for tomorrow.


As I have already said I am visiting a new course tomorrow – Thurles, over in Ireland. It will mean a long day, setting off at about six for an 8:30 flight and unlikely to be home much before midnight.


Normally I can knock up my racecards in about 45 minutes but with Irish cards it takes longer, not least there invariably large fields, plus reserves. This also presents the challenge of trying to get each race on a single A4 page.


In between all that I have had to do things like check-in for the flights, print off boarding cards, print off car hire paperwork, find the counterpart for my driving licence, not forgetting the passport. Oh yes and print off the letter of accreditation from the racecourse just in case I get questioned in the press room.


Ideally I should have an early night tonight, I somehow cannot see that happening.