It is a great relief that Royal Ascot is not on my agenda today; it is going to be a day of Archie bonding instead. Archie and I are off to a family party on our own, a first venture of being looked after all day by his father, it could be quite a shock for him!

Ascot has been a rewarding week; after seeing so many old faces and with the recent spate of winners on the board, the positive vibes from all should help fill a few of boxes during the winter.

Mat again shared the journey to Ascot; arriving in time to join Simon Sherwood for a quick drink before heading off to George Baker's picnic.

Gorgeous George as he was described to me earlier in the week (not by his wife) is a man who knows everybody, so it was always going to be interesting to see who was lunching at his picnic?

So important is your pitch or place in the the owners and trainers car park, that George's sister Muffy, was despatched to be there at 9 am to Reserve  an ideal spot and hold a couple of car spaces for the Range Rovers to arrive with the large number of bottles of fizz and plates of food required to feed and quench the thirst of his many guests. The end product was a good spot and loads of happy faces as the contents of the bottles disappeared.

Tom Siddall was in for only one lot this morning; he rode the Emperor Fountain 4 year old gelding a canter. We also worked Russian Lad, The Good Guy, Heartofmidlothian, Katy's Classic, Even Flo, Lord Of The Bridge and Good Old Days

Mat Nicholls, my head lad and right hand man was suitably impressed by what he saw yesterday at Ascot, he drove home considerably slower than when going to the races. Perhaps the thought of missing out made the needle on my old 4x4 speedo's needle touch numbers it had not achieved for a few years while heading east along the M4.

The ground at Ascot was incredibly fast, frankly I would have thought too fast for top class racing. Yeats was wonderful and great for racing; a true stayer who has now won 3 Ascot Gold Cups. He has amassed nearly a Million pounds in prize money, slightly less than last years Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kauto Star; mind you Kauto Star is a year older and has no stud value but all the same it is an interesting statistic.

While on my pet subject of ground, Summer Jump racing has in my opinion fallen flat when it comes to the state of the ground that our specialist summer jumping courses produce for our horses to run on..

My own racecourse table is as follows.

Uttoxeter comes out way top for producing the best and most consistent summer jumping ground, followed jointly by Perth and Market Rasen. Then things steadily get worse with Worcester, Newton Abbot and Stratford; all three frankly produce what I call proper breaking down ground; i.e. a bit of everything. It is not unusual to see one of these course produce what Hugo Bevan used to call, ''ground to suit everybody''. Good To Firm with the odd firmer patch and soft in places. (where the watering has got stuck!)

Day 2 at Royal Ascot was windy and a great deal cooler, which was very good news if you were like me, dressed as a penguin.

Harry (my driver) and I arrived in plenty of time to watch the Royal Parade, which I thought was important for Harry to see; unfortunately we were tempted by Paul Webber to stop off at his picnic for a drink which sadly resulted in us missing seeing who was hob knobbing it in the royal carriages. It was though, a very good picnic.

The afternoon went of in a haze of right arm movement, which included meeting up with Galaxia's owner Tony Solomons to celebrate his win last week at Uttoxeter.

Then a drink with my old racing club KCB organiser Marek Kwiatowski, followed by a session with old owners Mark Sherwood and Phillip Nelson. Ascot again seemed quiet and no traffic although I am sure today will put that right.

Jason Maguire was in this morning for a couple of lots; he fell off my youngster by Emperor Fountain; back in the saddle he raved about him after taking him up the gallops twice.

Back to Ascot today with Mat as co pilot. Mat who has now been here just over a month has never been to Royal Ascot before, let alone on ladies day; as a bachelor he is greatly looking forward to it.

Cornelius Lysaght sent the following text. Kim Bailey is back! Good news for all.

A most enjoyable days racing at Royal Ascot yesterday; full of all the things in life that should be seen and enjoyed and of course a good driver (Harry Bailey) to take us home after it had all finished. The one thing that you miss at Ascot is the rousing cheers that you hear at Cheltenham when a winner appears in that halloed enclosure. Yesterday at Ascot even Clare Balding failed to drum up more than a light applause when announcing the winners return over the public address system ; disappointing?

Tuesday always seems to be a long one as virtually every trainer opens his boot to all who walk through the owners and trainers car park after racing. There is huge rivalry to see who has the largest crowd round their open car boot and this year TTFFN's owner Raymond Mould was certainly up amongst the best, even if he did try and loose his morning suit as an excuse to avoid having to go.

There is a big debate going on; racing folk are trying to work out where I have been over the last few years, all because I have placed an advert in The Racing Post for the week headed ''Kim Bailey Is Back''

It has caused much amusement and loads of rude messages and Texts (shows that the ad is working) I even received the following email.

Dear Kim.

I'm worried that you might have been the victim of identity theft. I keep seeing ads saying ''Kim Bailey is back''. I did not realise you'd been away. Worse still I've been receiving (and paying) invoices from a ''Kim Bailey'' continually for the last couple of years with never a month missed. I presume these payments must have been going to the Tamil Tigers or a Nigerian.

from Worried of Sibford (aka Sibfords most successful owner)

Day 1 of the Royal Meeting at Ascot and to me it is always the best day to go; the racing is the best of the 5 days and normally it is the quietest crowd wise, what else would you want? We are lunching with John Chalk, John holds possibly the most entertaining picnic of the week; full of glamour and fun, with a band and conjurers to keep us entertained!

Work does not stop just because I am heading off to Ascot. Mia White, a specialist  horse manipulator was in to see Twenti Twenti. Twenti Twenti has been causing us huge problems with his back and hopefully Mia's treatment will help, although I am not sure one visit will suffice.

Derek and Venetia Hunter were here early to see The Good Guy and give him a congratulatory pat for his win last week at Fontwell.

What a fabulous weekend.

Saturday was very special, not because of Lord Seamus's run at The Torrington Point to Point; yes he ran well and finished 5th, but because it was the fact that yet again it proved why point to pointing has such a large and loyal following.

I don't think, bar the Pardubica, that I have ever been to such a strange racecourse; very tight, almost a mini Towcester, the course consisted of two hills and one bit of flat ground, yes tight, difficult and a third of the course either ran over a ploughed field or through a mown strip of green corn field 10 foot wide. You had to walk it to believe it but then of course I am used to proper racing!

There was huge crowd for the last day of the point to point season. Lord Daresbury had arrived with about 7 horses from Yorkshire in an attempt to help his son Oliver Greenall break what all thought was an impossible winning total of 54; Oliver succeeded and rode his 57 winner in a pointing season; unbelievable.

Yes it helps to have a rich dad but he still had to ride them and stay in one piece and Oliver rides very well indeed..far better than his father ever did, who was champion in his own right.

Grand National winning trainer David Pipe was there, as were a great many faces regularly seen in the racing world and people I have not seen for ages, including old members of my Racing Club KCB Fred Sampson and locals  Martyn and Sandra Fowler who have had mares from me in the past.

What was so special about Saturday was that everybody who was there for the fun, good racing and to celebrate the end of their season.

There was huge party atmosphere and everybody was there to enjoy it. They had a marquee which was later turned into a dance area for all who stayed to party into the small hours, which sadly I did not attend as I was driving Lord Seamus home although the lad that looked after him (Harry Bailey) skived off the journey home to stay for the party.

Saturdays point to point meeting was a proper end to a season, something in the old fashioned days of National Hunt racing we used to have; sadly we now finish our National Hunt season on Saturday and start the new the next day.

We used to enjoy the last Stratford meeting at the end of our old fashioned season; Friday night was party night and Saturday rounded off the whole season with a bang.

After the last race we used to say goodbye and everybody disappeared to do what they wanted for about 6 weeks before they all met up again for the start of the new season at Newton Abbott full of enthusiasm; it also meant that all had a rest including jockeys, which now seems almost impossible for some of them.

Sadly now what would have been the last meeting at Stratford is dull, lacking in any atmosphere and excitement; it has become just another ordinary race meeting with a big hunter chase to remind us what it used to be.