“IT’S all about video now”, I was told by a colleague recently. If video killed the radio star, has Coivd helped kill the written word?

In the first instance, there is so much less to write about, in telling tales from the empty tracks. And we’ve moved into a lethargic ‘anything goes’ mood.

Who would want to be commissioned to write a colour piece on Champions’ Weekend? Especially if you remember the first Irish Champions Day in Leopardstown when the noise was fizzing off the stands, Pat Smullen saying he could hear it down at the seven-furlong start. Fun and fashion and the crowd roaring Ryan Moore on as The Grey Gatsby bore down on Australia.

We are used to working from home, casual as it goes, Zoom everything, stick it all out there on the small screen on social media. It can seem hard to see the point in editing or polishing a written essay. The irony being than any eminent person being interviewed on Zoom made sure they had a full bookcase in view behind them!

In a clean-out of many long-saved articles this week, I found one of the best lines ever in a racing account.

“I saw the way she came into the paddock for the Astoria, so clearly up to no good, moving into the walking ring as through a lobby bar, like some willowy hooker on the make, that black satin dress pulled tight around her full and near perfect derriere.” It was a piece by Bill Nack on the famous US filly Ruffian.

What visual account could convey that image? And on the eve of the greatest race in US racing – the Kentucky Derby, Nack’s account of another great race – Secretariat’s 1973 Belmont - beats blind any visual or verbal account. To dismiss the written account reminds me of Kavanagh’s “through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.”

We don’t need to see everything in your spare room! Take a bit of time to prepare and digest the written word.