Bangor Racecourse is undoubtedly one of the prettiest courses when the sun in shining. Bangor is a hugely improved racecourse as far as facilities and atmosphere are concerned, although don't go there if it is raining as it is the only course in the country that does not have any grandstands, so you would either get very wet or be squashed in a bar (covered) by a crowd of singing Welshmen. The Fat Farmers relations come out in force when there are no local football matches!

Wenlocks Wonder heads off to next months Doncaster Sales after yesterdays performance; he has been hugely disappointing. Sir Brastias ran well and if he had not clouted the second last he just might have been very close, although he did seem to travel through most of Wales to get there!

Having already bred two very good riders in Harry (two wins in Point to Points) and Pandora who is also doing well in the show jumping and cross country world, it was the turn of young Archie to show off his prowess on a pony.

Here is Archie on the right sitting on Annabel Vaughan's children's pony for the first time. A great many comments have been directed, unfairly at times, at Archie's size and physique and as a result the word jockey is not one that springs to mind, especially as he is known locally as bully baby!

Archie Bailey did not take too keenly to the art of riding, the quad bike is more his line.. but as his mother says...for the moment!

What we worked this morning worked rather flat and lifeless, which means that they did not have any buzz in their step. All rather typical of a late season work morning with horses who are waiting for ground and have been on the go for a long time. For some it is now a time to say holidays and a summer break, as you can only keep horses at a peak for so long, we are very much stop and start with some of them at the moment as we have had no rain for 6 weeks and time is running out.

Very Special One left the yard this morning to meet her intended husband Overbury, she was dropped off on the way to Bangor.

Today is the anniversary of JP McNamara's fall at Bangor which left him paralysed for so long; a year on he has proved to be a walking miracle and an inspiration to so many in a similar situation.

Last night Clare and I were invited to 'The Sport Celebrates The Grand National' charity ball in aid of Spinal Injuries Association and Retraining of Racehorses. It was a hugely posh do, held in the presence of H.RH. The Princess Royal, who is Patron to both of last nights charities.

There was the usual format of auction prizes and ways of raising money for the two charities, but during the evening they did show some great clips of the Grand National including dear old Mr Frisks winning year; Clare and I sat on his table along with his jockey Marcus Armytage.

Richard Pitman was the nights compare and during the evening he reminded us how The Princess Royal had told him a few years ago to 'get back in his box' for being too familiar! Something he should have told again when he interviewed Marcus Armytage about his greatest riding moment; Marcus was not amused and rightly so.

One of the Auction prizes was the original Philip Blacker Bronze Perpetual Trophy, presented to the winning owner of the Grand National during the Martell sponsored era; I tried very hard to buy it as my winning trophy, a battery operated carriage clock, had final died a natural death i.e. the plaque stating it was for the ''winning trainer'' (it could have been for a seller at Worcester for the lack of information on it) had finally melted and slipped off. I was predictably out bid and the final purchaser was J P McManus who has yet to win the race!

I did come away with one interesting lot and that was for a race named at Aintree at next years Grand National festival plus a couple of hospitality tables, most likely on the Friday. Some wag came up with the Kim Bailey Memorial Handicap Hurdle; but I very much hope I will not be qualifying for that salubrious title! Perhaps I should auction it off on eBay?

I am sure you will be pleased to know that we did not have any problems with our sat nav system coming home last night. Nathan, who very kindly drove us knew his way back to Gloucestershire!

We schooled Even Flo and Lord Seamus over fences this morning. Lord Seamus who is a double winning pointer was schooled for the first time by Patience Wootton, they gave Even Flo a lead. Patience looked good and comfortable on Lord Seamus who was certainly more relaxed than when she led him round the paddock in his point to point!

Lasts night's Cheltenham sale was staggering; what some of the horses made was beyond belief. There were four horses that made well over £100,000. Top lot was the good race mare Chompa Womba who made £160,000, the unbroken Lindeman (related to Denman) made £140,000 and several made over the 50,000's but it was capped for me by a horse who had failed the pre sales vet panel for making a noise; he was knocked down for £40,000..not to me I hasten to add!

I did purchase two horses, one young unbroken 3 year old and one winning point to pointer. The pointer which has a typical Irish name 'Ya I Know' was bought by James Burgess who lives locally in Withington; James is venturing into racehorse ownership for the first time, so the very best of luck with Ya I Know.

We had a visit this morning from Mike Cattermole the racing commentator, Mike was staying locally with George and Cnythia Dowty; apparently his regular haunt for Cheltenham.

Very Special One was our only runner at Cheltenham this afternoon. She ran in a hot mares handicap hurdle and all we felt that she would run well after her recent decent performance in the mares final hurdle at Newbury, where she was third.

Very Special One was travelling so well at the top of the hill (3 from home) when when she suddenly went very lame and was immediately pulled up by her jockey Alan O'Keeffe; luckily it turned out that she had either trapped or banged a nerve as within 15 minutes she was totally sound and passed fit and well by the course vets. Very Special One will now have a change of career, she is now off to stud, and will visit Overbury.

Good to bump into some old friends this afternoon, Martyn and Elaine Booth who had horses in training with me in Lambourn have just moved to Cheltenham. I very much hope we will be seeing a great deal more of them now that they are so local.

This morning we had 25 people visiting the yard hosted by Sporting Horse Promotions.  Many of them were enjoying a gift package (similar to Red Letter Days) which they had bought in stores nationwide such as Debenhams, Boots and WH Smith.  After visiting Thorndale they were then off to the races at Cheltenham this afternoon.

These sort of days are perfect for people who may be familiar with racing on the TV but who have either never been racing or are relatively new to going racing and may feel slightly daunted by the whole racecourse experience.  The aim is to give them a guided tour which gives them an insight into the raceday routine including how to bet, what to look for in the paddock etc.  This added to the stable visit should give them a great feel for what racing is all about.  Who knows, they may even tempted into a little share of a racehorse at some point in the future...

It was like the good old days at Exeter Races this afternoon; moderate racing on firm ground, but 7 winners and several happy faces left the course; sadly we were not one of them!.

With John and Penny Perriss you always have a good day because that is the way they do their racing; it should be fun win or lose, sadly the latter has been more prevalent after Even Flo yet again showed us nothing.

Clare spent the day previewing the horses at Cheltenham's Brightwells National Hunt Sale who all come under the hammer tomorrow night. We have two orders to try and fill although I feel they could be very over priced and difficult to buy, but we will see.

Hard to believe that we can play international cricket! Thank god for a Scotsman called Andy Murray, he has real fighting spirit even if he looks sulky and hates Wimbledon!

Monday mornings for most are just the start of another week; mine feels like it is the end of a very long one.

We are still thanking Longshanks for being so incredibly brave and running such a great race in Saturday's John Smith's Grand National, it just goes to show how tough and genuine he is and to think I called him a wimp a couple of times last week!

I cannot tell you how delighted I am to see him looking so relaxed and happy, although he must be wondering why he has not been swimming this morning!

What has staggered me is how many emails we have received over the last few days; Longshanks has become, as so many of the mentioned ''public property''.  Thank you all so much for your support, it really has been heart warming to know that so many people have followed his preparation and how many people are genuinely interested in all that goes on in his life, and all wanted to know that he is back in one piece.

I have replied to them all, which I have to say has taken far longer than expected; some might just be a little worried by my turn of phrase as they might have been written rather late into the night, after another long day!

That long day was helped by the fact that my son Harry won his second Point To Point yesterday at our local course in Andoversford. What a day and as a proud father, who was unable to see his first win, yesterday was very special and one Harry and I will remember for a few years to come.

Harry's horse Lord Seamus, was given to him by Iain Buchan when he decided to retire him from National Hunt racing; Lord Seamus loves fast ground, so as you can imagine he has come into his element on what we are racing on in this April heat wave. A great day and as they say a ''proud moment!''