Mat said that it was not wet rain when he and I were standing by the gallops first lot watching Tom Siddall ride work on Even Flo. It was remark that he was going to regret for the rest of the morning as even the waterproofs worn by our team failed to keep out the water.

Tom Siddall was in for 3 lots, he also rode Max Bygraves and Braybrooke Lady and even my old head lad Darren Swanton was in for 1 lot and rode Lucky Luk; Darren who was in the area for a concert now lives back in London

Ollie Garners mother Debbie Chasworth called in with Malcolm Bevan and Chris and Susan Brown to watch through the rain Ollie ride Buffalo Bob up the gallops; it was not wet rain!

Pandora Bailey and her team were second yesterday at Gatcombe, a great effort. We are back there today ..in the rain!

We had a great day yesterday with Keith and Liz Ellis at Goodwood, lunch in one their many good restaurants along with David and Kathryn Todd and if you know of David, (he used to be a co owner in that good chaser Kings Fountain ), you would soon understand that it was a long one!

I love Glorious Goodwood. it is a wonderful racecourse and to me it is the Cheltenham of the summer; i.e. full of good racing with a crowd who know how to enjoy themselves and most know their racing too.

There were several jump trainers seen floating round the bars including Richard Phillips who was wearing an identical linen suit to me, he looked very dapper, although I have to say that he had not  visibly lost any weight yet!

My daughter Pandora was performing at Gatcombe horse trails this morning; she was show jumping for the Old Berks pony club along with Alfie Bradstock, the younger addition of Mark; Pandora went clear on her first round this morning and very much looked the part. We are back there again tomorrow as guests of one of the main sponsors Biotal.

Jason Maguire went to see the doctor (or vet in his case) last night who was so impressed by the rumours that he was glued to the dance floor at Timmy Murphy's wedding last weekend until 6 in the morning that he has allowed him to start thinking about riding out again.

Jason hopes to be back on the racecourse in a couple of weeks time.

Thank the lord for air conditioning. I put over 450 miles on my car yesterday, which was all very well, the outside temperature gauge registered 29 degrees (whatever that means in fahrenheit) and it was slowly getting as hot inside the car as it was outside having to listen to the English cricket teams dismal batting performance; I suppose I could have turned it off?

My journey was broken by three stops, one in Suffolk, one with Richard and Rachael Wilson and finally with Alec and Margaret Byrne.

Always great to see Richard and Rachael and I enjoyed looking over their youngsters then it was onto see Silver Missile out in the field at the Byrnes. I was amazed how much a horse can change over a two month period while out in a field ; SM has filled out and matured and now looks a racehorse, something I hope I have the chance to prove.

Back home just in time to watch was must have been the biggest waste of BBC funds and airtimes viewing I have ever seen. It was hard to stay awake watching last nights latest addition of Panoramas attempts to ruin racing; there was nothing new and frankly it was pretty damn dull,  it was a relief to watch the BBC2 House of Saddam on sky plus later.

James Burgess called in this morning to see Ya I Know.. a last visit to see his horse before he heads off to the sales next week which is sad.

Off to Glorious Goodwood with Keith and Liz Ellis, should be a fun day and hopefully a dry one? Good to Paul Vogt's horse run well there yesterday.

Last night it was a pub supper with Mikey and Ginny Elliot. After hearing all the rave reviews we decided to give the The Plough at Kingham a go as it was half way house; the food was good but cold!

Ginny, who was one of Britain's finest 3 day event riders is about to disappear off to the Beijing Olympics as the boss of the Irish Event Team. A tough task ahead and one that she is greatly looking forward to.

Tom Siddall was in to ride work on Double Mead, we also worked Even Flo, Heartofmidlothian, Lord Of The Bridge and Russian Lad.

I am in the car all day looking at horses; so it off to Norfolk via Suffolk and then I hope to be home in time to watch the latest addition of the seedy world of betting or perhaps Fawlty Towers on BBC1 at 9.pm

The display of light last night was pretty spectacular. Nothing short of the 1812 to the backdrop of both ball and fork lightening; altogether pretty stunning, unless of course you were an animal out in a field.

The whole sky light up and you could see for miles, which is far more than you are likely to see in Beijing when they start firing rockets into the sky for their opening ceremony.

Felix de Giles was in for a couple of lots, he rode Russian Lad and Braybrooke Lady.

Glorious Goodwood starts today; five days of great racing on one of the finest and most beautiful racecourses in the world, especially on a sunny day.

We usually do one day during the festival week and this year we will be going on Thursday with Keith and Liz Ellis (Good Old Days).

My summer Flat racing consists, if possible, of one or two days at  Royal Ascot, then one at the July meeting at Newmarket, and one at Goodwood; which as far as I am concerned is a pretty good selection

Sadly our local Murco garage in Andoversford, which I have to say is one of the most friendly and hugely useful, has fallen foul to a credit card fraud.

Locals have been stung by really quite large amounts of money disappearing out of their credit card accounts from unusual places in Jamaica, Canada and the USA. Who is responsible lord only knows and although it was made public a couple of weeks ago, people are still finding their banks on the phone advising them of the problem.

Graham Potts our usual vet is off in a horse plane to the Far East tomorrow accompanying the Australian event team, he is their resident vet for the 2008 Olympics. Graham who smokes cigars like a chimney is not particularly looking forward to the thought of a long uncomfortable flight, especially as it is a non smoker.

Graham's partner in the Three Counties Vetinary practice, Chris Rea, called in to remove a wart, treat a wart and scan a joint; he also looked at his old patient Constantius. Chris was the man in charge of the operation on Constantius's near hind joint so it was interesting for him to see him again, especially as this week we have started riding Constantius again.

A busy week end.

Saturday afternoon I went to Ascot to meet up with Don Churston and Tony Solomons; a chance to discuss their horses Constantius and Galaxia and their respective plans. Also I was keen to support George Baker who was having his first group runner, Excellerator delighted them when finishing third.

The big race of the day, the King George, was spectacular to watch. Duke Of Marmalade was awesome especially when coming back to win after being headed, although you wonder how much Papal Bull hated being in front.

With Aidan O'Brien winning his fifteenth Group 1 of the season over the weekend, some people are now saying that it is becoming boring watching the Coolmore operation win everything? Forget it, you really have to take your hat off to them, they are pretty damned good at their job. Godolphin has far more money and several times more horses in training but where are they when it comes to the big races these days. They must be pretty sick?

Saturday night Marcus Armytage opened his house and garden to about 150 people; a house warming without any jockeys (they were all attending Timmy Murphy's wedding). There were a great many old mates form my Lambourn days, some of whom I have not seen since, it was good to see them.

The ever chirpy Richard Phillips looked as if he had summer rather well and when I jokingly remarked on the increase in size, he said that it was not surprising as he had spent most of his time lunching my owners! It would be wrong of me to let you know my reply although I did quote Alan Lee; suffice to say I hope that  the next time I see him he looks anorexic!

Yesterday Peter Kerr called in to look round Thorndale Farm, Peter was on his way to Wales with his family. Peter who ran syndicates for Peter Harris is keen to do the same based here. More on that later.

Peters visit was followed by a very hot afternoon in the garden with a few of Archies friends who brought along their parents to mind them.

I hope we behaved better than they did and as we don't have a swimming pool the alternative venue was a large paddling pool which Archie and his friends enjoyed playing in; the grown ups would have called in skinny dipping, although we didn't just in case you were wondering.

Another very hot morning here; not much fun for the horses who were certainly sweating up in the heat; not  much for the staff either as they frazzled in their protective vests.

The down side of all this lovely weather is that we cant really cannot turn the horses out in the fields as much as we would like to. The horse flies that appear, drive them absolutely mad and it can so easily result in the horses galloping round the field to avoid them. Not a ideal situation when a horse should be relaxing, eating a bit of grass and generally sunning themselves. The ones that need to go out now head off into the fields at night time.