Longshanks is fine and looks in great shape this morning.   

Longshanks seems fine this morning; he ate up all his food last night on his return to his stable and is now out in the field enjoying a well earned break, from us all!

You have no idea how proud his owner Alan Halsall and I are of his dear horse; what Longshanks did and achieved yesterday was quite extraordinary.

I always walk the course on the morning of the Grand National, especially when I have a runner, I always try if possible to walk it with the owners of our runner. By walking the course you realise what the horses have to do that afternoon and it very much sets up the day; your adrenalin really starts to flow as you approach Bechers Brook and then you see the drop on the landing side when you walk round this huge fence. The brook is there for all to see when you walk it before racing, although it is covered in by the time the horses jump it several hours later.

Yesterday, walking the course was a trial on its own, it was so hot; we were followed all the way round by Charlie Egerton, who looked as if a good glass of water would do him the world of good. 25 degrees and with the place packed with over 75,000 people Aintree was buzzing as never before. The new stands looked awesome; especially when you walked up to them from the last fence; how Aintree has changed over the last 17 years when I won it with Mr Frisk, it is almost unrecognisable to what it was then.

We all had lunch in Lord Daresbury's tent, which even with a recently installed air con unit felt like we were on safari.. hot and dusty; however good the lunch was it was hard to appreciate it, especially when you have a runner; stomachs are not really used to two emotions!

Longshanks looked stunning in the paddock; bright eyed and relaxed, which was extraordinary after what he had been through for the last 10 days or so. Perhaps it was relief to be with his mate and lad Liam Higgins and away from Darren, Vet, blacksmiths and me.. poking and prodding at him!

Jockey Tony Dobbin was confident and said how much he was looking forward to the ride and with a few helpful words with JP McNamara off he went. The shoe stayed on in the parade and was still on when he went off to the first (I had become paranoid!). The race was run at some speed on good fast ground; not ideal as a slow race would have conserved energy. Longshanks jumped for fun and never put a foot wrong; he was always up there and 3 from home he was in with every chance but the fast speed and conditions took its toll and he gradually slipped back down the field to finish a hugely gallant 7th.. Just missing out on 6th prize money!

Tony Dobbin said he had the best ever ride over those huge fences and would love to ride him next year; who knows he might just do that as we would love to be there and have Tony on board again.

A great day; exhausting, emotionally and physically, and on the way home I reflected on a hugely brave horse who had run his heart out for us and god we were so proud of him.

My one hope at the end of the day was to see Longshanks smiling face looking out over his stable door this morning and there he was. You have no idea what that meant, especially after what emotions we have all been through these last few days.

Thank you Longshanks, Liam, Darren, Caroline Stewart, Graham Potts (vet) Alan Bailey (blacksmith) Jim Wilson and Liz Newman (swimming) for all your help and support. A true team effort.

My week end was capped by son Harry winning the members race at the local Cotswold Point to Point. What a cup..one to be in pride of place in the office.

PS. Happy Birthday Alan; have a great day, your horses will be thinking of you while you are supping Champagne celebrating and why not.

If you see something odd swimming up the Mersey tomorrow morning, don't for one minute think it is Nessie on holiday or David Walliams preparing for another charity swim; it will more than likely be Longshanks completing his Aintree preparation!

With 24 hours to go before the big race Longshanks has swum for Britain over the last week and I can promise you this will have not done him any harm; the combination of cantering and swimming will have put him in peak form for his big day.

It has been a tense week but we all feel that Longshanks has come through it all well and from 4.15 pm tomorrow afternoon it will be up to Tony Dobbin to navigate a clear course. Fingers crossed all round and we all hope for a big run and a safe return.

If you would like to do a Grand National Sweepstake for this year's race, you can download our Kim Bailey Racing sweepstake form and play with friends, colleagues or family, good luck! 

1. Sweepstake Form - Download now, divide up the horses for players to draw randomly.

2. Player Picks - Download now so you can make a note of who has drawn which horse.

Suggested prize structure could be as follows:

Entry: £2 per horse = £80 kitty
Winner: £45 
2nd prize: £20
3rd prize: £10
4th prize: £5

Bright sunny morning spring is definitely in the air and Thorndale Farm is full of playful lambs running round the fields.

As we all know trainers love excuses and not unlike farmers always need something to complain about; at the moment all you will hear from trainers is how firm the ground has become and how quickly it has dried up.

Taunton's scheduled meeting today has been abandoned because they have hard ground! I really cannot think of this happening so early in the year; but it does make our life difficult as we all want to run horses, but a jarred tendon is as bad as a strained one and will have the same result; a year off the racecourse recuperating. As the old saying goes.. when in doubt pull out!

I was in London last night for the annual Whites Grand National Dinner, an event I have attended for years. It is always a fun night and chance to see some old mates not seen more than once a year; dinner is always followed by an over the top auction of the Grand National runners, conducted by ex racehorse trainer and part time Daily Telegraph writer, Charlie Brooks.

The evening went slightly astray when I set my navigation system for ''Home'' before I  was driven back to Thorndale Farm... fast asleep; all should have gone smoothly except I had forgotten to change my ''Home'' destination when I moved to Gloucestershire, so you can imagine I had quite a shock when I woke up to see a sign saying 'Daventry 4 miles'! I did of course retract the bollocking administered to Harry.

Longshanks swam this morning and cantered this afternoon. Blacksmith Alan Bailey was in to look at his feet and go through the various options on shoes.

John Perriss very kindly drove me to Hereford this afternoon to watch Girardii run in the last; John who owns Even Flo is also a member of the  Dream Maker Partnership. Nathan Smith my young conditional gave Girardii a very sympathetic ride to finish third although he most probably should have been closer, or at least that is what the stewards thought!

There is no doubt Girardii really enjoyed his race and remains a novice for next season, not something I expected. It is not easy for conditionals to get going and sadly the only way to learn is by experience on the racecourse.

Tony Dobbin's agent rang early this morning to say that Tony will be riding at Aintree on Thursday and providing nothing un towards happens he will be on Longshanks on Saturday as planned.

As you can imagine my telephone has been fairly hot to say the least, Marcus Armytage rang to ask if Tony would be sitting on the horse before the race; I said I very much hope so, at about 3.50pm on Saturday.

Jim McGrath wearing his BBC hat was down here this morning filming the yard, gallops and Jim Wilson's swimming pool for Saturdays Grand National program.  Longshanks featured in Jims pool although not on the gallops; this was purposely arranged as we were always going to be swimming this morning and cantering this afternoon.

It was good to see Jim who is very much the voice of racing now that Peter O' Sullevan has retired. Although we chatted about racing on air, we did branch off air, onto the subject of how to be ripped off in the Caribbean while watching the world cup! Sad and disgraceful.

There must be something with me and stones as after Jim went I had problems with a tyre and damaged tyre rim and however much Mrs B insists it is my driving ability I am sure I don't drive  down the road that erratically?

I was delighted, grateful and surprised to see the following email arrive in my in tray this morning. I do not believe Luke ever rode for me during his illustrious career; a top man and one we all miss when the BBC cut him off air in July; another nail in racings coffin, how the BBC seems to hate us as a sport.

''While researching my 8.30 bulletin for radio 5 this morning I logged onto your website and felt compelled to drop you an email. The site is both attractive and easy to navigate - lucky for an ex jockey like myself, and a credit to whoever put it together - Kim 25/1 !

I hope Tony Dobbin recovers in time to ride Longshanks and all continues well at Thorndale Farm. ''

Regards

Luke Harvey

Easter is traditionally a family weekend; mine was, we managed to creep away for 24 hours to stay with Clare's brother. I did go to Huntingdon yesterday, which I rather wished I had not as not only was Leac An Scail very disappointing, but far worse was to come when I saw my Grand National jockey Tony Dobbin hit the deck at Fairyhouse in the Irish Grand National.

It was not long before the news hounds were on the telephone with news that Tony had broken/ fractured his arm/shoulder depending who they were. So I was to start looking for another jockey? Then it was the turn of agents and jockeys alike offering their services including one 7 lb claimer from Ireland whose name I did not catch, but with only a couple of winners under his belt he was not even qualified to ride in the race! Must have been a piss taker!

Then to cap it all a reporter from the Daily Star rang to ask if Longshanks had got in as he had the declarations but did not know what weight he had or what number he was!. The good news is that Tony has bruised his shoulder/arm and hopes to be ok..we wait!