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It’s football rather than racing that’s known as a “funny old game”.
But some of the howlers noted down by Epsom lass Louisa Allen over the years show the Flat is not without comedy value.
Clanger comments by owners and students, wind-ups and practical jokes by lads – all have gone into the book that Louisa, head girl to trainer Jim Boyle, has kept for the past 10 years.
Now, she is giving racing fans a laugh by relating some of the silliest stories, one a day, on the microblogging site Twitter.
“Trainer says to owner ‘that horse will need a rug’. ‘Is that to lie on?’ owner asked.”
“Racing school kid’s first lunchtime was spent queuing up in the post office. Someone had told him he had to get his riding out licence from there.”
“Polish girl was asked to get the quarter marker from lorry that makes pictures on the horse. She returned proudly with her camera.”
“Night before a race, an experienced lass went and asked Jim for some TNT for her horse. Someone told her it was meant to go in its feed.”
Louisa told H&H: “I’ve been working in racing for so long and heard so many funny things that I started writing them down.
“I used to say I’d get my book published one day – but Twitter is the obvious place to put them all.”
“The hard thing is getting them down to [Twitter’s maximum] 140 characters.”
And for those who’ve missed out on the fun, Louisa says she will be posting plenty more.
“I’ll be keeping going for a while as I have enough for a good few weeks yet – and there are a couple of corkers to come!” she added.
Follow Louisa on Twitter: @shellou05.
This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (24 May 2012)
