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Tank
Paul Haigh was
a relatively young man
when he died so
news of his death
is doubly sad
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Hmmm, my dad died at 69 – that was his age and nothing to do with him being involved in a sex act at the time .. as far as I know. Mother lived past 80 though and I have memories of her dancing at her 80th when we all got together oop north and it coincided with the new millennium.
Seems like yesterday. Tempus Fugit
Sorry to hear your parents died and particularly your father at a youngish age.
Why a sex act should kill or disable a man of 69 ?…. Oh I have just clicked…
Is nothing sacrosanct Tank ?
Your Pa would put you over his knee if he read that.
I am not going to lie, one of the many reasons why I was probably the worst sub-editor in the history of the Racing Post is that I have never had much inherent actual respect for racing journalism.
Cards, form and results sell racing papers, the rest (news and features) is all window dressing, as even one subsequent Editor admitted to me down the pub one night, and just a vehicle for the top brass there to kid themselves they are at a serious national paper and can mix it with the broadsheets.
But even I could see Paul Haigh was a decent writer and I remember him writing about getting back to his hotel after Arazi had won the Breeders Cup Juvenile and a bell hop saying: “did you see that horse?!”
You see, Paul had the gift of being able to convey the moment he was living in, and how rare moments of true greatness transcend the sport and impact on the wider world.
In that instant, reading it, I felt like I was in the hotel lobby with him.
He might have been a bit of a champagne socialist, and a rebel who never grew up, but he was a good bloke, his heart was in the right place, and he was a cracking writer, taken too soon at 76 (no age nowadays).
RIP.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"- Total Posts 2553
gamble, no he wouldn’t! He would laugh
As with a previous poster on this thread I first began
reading Paul Haigh’s articles in Pacemaker, which imo during the 70’s and 80’s was the best racing magazine around. I began collecting them in 1975 and during that period there were some real heavyweights writing regularly, such as Tim Fitzgeorge – Parker, Ivor Herbert, Colin Fleetwood-Jones, Julian Wilson, Roger Mortimer, a young Graham Rock, and Tony Morris, who along with Haigh I consider to be the best writer employed by the Racing Post. One of the monthly articles Morris, being an avid historian, use to produce for Pacemaker was ‘ 100 years Ago’ which would detail what was happening on the racing scene 100 years to the month.Anyway returning to Haigh, I’ve been browsing through my Pacemakers which are in random order and I can’t find any submissions from him during the 1970’s, the earliest article located coming in the February 1980 edition, where he was speaking to Jimmy Lindley about international jockey’s matches and whether there could be an equivalent of a Grand Prix for jockeys ( and thank God this never came about!!). Throughout the 1980’s he penned regular articles for Pacemaker, mostly work of the highest quality,as well as going out to interview trainers, something which Fitzgeorge -Parker and Herbert had previously shared between them. Very sad that he has passed, one of my very favorite writers despite often agonizing over his modernist, to hell with tradition line of thinking.
and Tony Morris, who along with Haigh I consider to be the best writer employed by the Racing Post.
Bang on Cancello
He might have been a bit of a champagne socialist
“Of course I’m a Champagne Socialist. The difference between me and a good Tory is he keeps his money while I share mine” – Brian Clough, 2004.
RIP Zorro. The Post columns of the late-1990s which first introduced me to him were never anything less than forthright and written with a dazzling clarity and economy. He didn’t have stock phrases as such, but one that seemed to come up more than most – “the joke has worn first thin and then out” – is one I’ve delighted in re-using plenty over the years.
gc
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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