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I was prompted by comments from Mesh and HappyJack to find a measure of fame other than self regard, and surely the true measure of whether you are someone in the racing world is whether your name can be found on the RP archives. I’ve tried a few here and apart from the above mentioned, there are plenty of forumites who get a mention.
A couple of surprising absentees are GraysonsColumn and the fountain of equine breeding knowledge that is Sal, despite copius mentions for hubby and sis (where’s the justice eh?). So go on, if you’re in, you’re in. Are you in? ;)
Disappointing Mr J ~ just when there was a groundswell of public opinion that you might be "the one" :biggrin:
Quote: from davidjohnson on 6:02 pm on Oct. 5, 2006[br]Rarely come to the lounge so have only just seen this but I can state that I am not the Champion Jumps owner David Johnson.  However I can confirm that I am THE David Johnson.:biggrin: <br>
sounds about right :biggrin:
Try searching under J Grayson and you’ll find one letter from me, dated early 2002, I think, defending the track record of Ted Caine, trainer of the late, sadly lamented Quixall Crossett.
Ergo a thread on the Racing Forum.
Will say more in due course but not now. It’s been a very emotional day.
gc<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
If it counts, I got a mention in the Japanese equivilent of the Racing Post, being described as ‘Western Europe’s leading expert on the history of the Russian stud book’.
It’s probably on the web somewhere, but it was about 3 years ago.  And in Japanese.
My name is indeed on the Racing Post archives, and a few years ago I was mentioned in the illustrious publication The Western Morning News at least twice.
Yep – I’m in the archives thanks to an untypically biting letter I sent regarding a whip trial the Jockey Club had secretly held in a public race without informing the public! I am delighted to report that this ruffled feathers and John Maxse not only sent an unconvincing reply but, in a feature they coincidentally ran on him a week or two later, he was still seething and my name got mentioned again! <br>That little spat occured five years ago though and I haven’t been heard of since so a ‘nobody’ then I’m afraid.
I get two mentions ~ one which drew praise and one which damn near scuoppered my career. I once wrote a letter defending Kelso and its fences after Animal Aid’s Dene Stanshall erroneously condemned the ‘slippery going’ for a fatal fall at the track.
The other occasion was pure chance, as I happened to answer the phone to Jim Cremin who wanted a quote for his Talking Shop column about the newly fledged phenomenon of Virtual Racing. I duly obliged ~ "punters see it as a bit of fun" I believe I said, which innocuous comment appeared on a US website (can’t remember why) and was spotted by a nutter from Middlesbrough who believed he’d invented a concept which I had clearly stolen off him and turned into said product.
The gent in question (I believe his name was Arthur) subsequently sued my employers and myself personally for stealing his idea (adding personal injury to his complaints, which still confuses me a little) to the tune of a whopping £32.5 million*. I spent weeks talking to high powered lawyers who struggled to get a rudimentary grasp of the situation before the case was thrown out of court.
I’ve never told that story before, and it’s still rather hard to believe that it really happened, but it did.
(or that may well have been £325 million. Either way, my HSBC current account would have been stretched to the limit had things gone tits up in court!)
(Edited by rory at 6:57 pm on Oct. 6, 2006)
Now that sounds like the ultimate description of ‘a bad day at work’.
Flipping heck Rory :laugh:
The confusion between me and my namesake reminds me of when I was at the Punchestown Festival 2 seasons ago. I was enjoying some Betfair hospitality and was shown to a table where a nameplace was set for David Johnson. I sat down, started chatting away to these other people at the table and it was only after a few lip-loosening pints of Guiness that they said how disappointed they were that I had turned up when they had been expecting someone else.
Ooh, found a second letter of mine in the RP archive, this time with my name rendered as JEREMY GRAYSON. It was relating to my nomination for best race ever as part of that RP poll a while back – a certain late, lamented bay gelding permit-trained up in North Yorkshire features, staggeringly enough.
gc<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I’m not a somebody, in fact i’m a couple of rungs down from a nobody. I think I could be a ‘won’teverbeanybodybody’.
DJ – the other racing forum I frequent has its own namesakey type person in Paul Beck. You can Guest, sorry guess, what he gets asked by newbies there on a regular basis.
Apparently there’s a Jeremy Grayson who worked as a photographer on things like the Radio Times for years and may still do, but as far as I’m aware he’s not a regular at Cartmel. :biggrin:
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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