Mat drove Jason Maguire, Tom Siddall, The Karinga Bay gelding and Thenameescapesme to Lambourn for a piece of work as a change of scenery, we always park in Oliver Sherwood's yard before working up the all weather on the back of the hill. It makes a change just to do something different once in a while.

Lou Cox, my travelling Head girl, is off games at the moment having had a hernia operation on Monday; Lou is going to be out of action for a while.

We have been recruiting a couple of new staff for the winter ahead and having assessed the possible applicants on how they ride, we always then ring past employers for a reference; something that I feel is not only common courtesy but also essential. It always amazes me how few people do and certainly two of my more recent employees, who have moved on up the ladder to more responsible jobs were never given references as they were not asked for.

We are heading north for a long weekend; it is Archie's 4th birthday on Sunday and Clare's parents are hosting a birthday party. It is also my daughter Pandora's on Saturday. Happy birthday all round?

Yesterday I should have been playing cricket for Georg Baker in Newmarket, but sadly I cried off due to a reoccurrence an old war wound in my right foot. A great shame as I have now been on the bench for a couple of years and George was waiting to see if my old abilities were still there!

Mat my head lad popped over to see the Perriss's yesterday and wormed Double Mead; Double Mead who was slightly jarred up last October has had Stem Cell treatment and been rested since. DM is due to return back into training in a couple of weeks time.

Last night was a trip to London to celebrate Barry Kitcherside's retirement from Frogmore; not terribly sure retirement will be the right word as Barry is very active, not only in business but even more so with Surrey Cricket and the Oval. Talking of cricket the Ashes series is not that far away. Something to look forward to after Andy Murray tires us out at Wimbledon.

I just about survived last nights after dinner talk with no real problems which made a change from the last time I did one.

The last time I was asked to do one of these I had failed to realise that my eye sight was fading and when I stood up to talk in front of 500 people I could not read my notes because of the darkened tent; I cannot tell you how embarrassing it was, floundering round trying to remember what I was meant to say I placed my notes in front a candle to try and help the situation but sadly they went up in flames!

I made a huge cock up of it, so much so that Geoffrey Arblaster, our next door neighbour, called round the following morning and told Clare that I was so drunk that I had forgotten my lines!

Among the assembled guests last night were Paddys Terns owners John and Pat Cantrill, so I had to be on my best behaviour, but luckily the banqueting room in the Queens Hotel in Cheltenham was bright and full of light so we managed to survive!

I ended my evening with the following story

A top flat jockey was having an affair with an Italian woman.
One night she told him she was pregnant.

Not wanting to ruin his reputation or marriage he gave her money to have the baby in Italy. If she stayed in Italy he would provide child support until the child was 18.
 

She agreed but asked how he would know the baby was born. He told her to drop a postcard with the word "SPAGHETTI" on the back.

9 months later when he came home after a days racing his confused wife said to him that you have got a very strange card today. He read the card and turned white and fainted.

The card read SPAGHETTI SPAGHETTI SPAGHETTI; two with meatballs one without.
Send extra sauce.

A fabulous week end of sport, although bar a stunning win by the English women's cricket team in the twenty 20 finals at Lords yesterday it was not a great weekend for Great Britain.

Our highlight was Naunton fete and donkey Derby on Saturday. There was a strong turn out from Thorndale and obviously TFFFN's team were there in force. Archie and Bear won a couple of blue rosettes in the scruffy dog most like its owner class,  his father admired from a distance. The Donkey Derby was very popular with budding young jockeys but the biggest laugh came when Timmy Murphy, Robert Thornton, Jason Maguire, Tom Siddall, Carl Llewellyn, David England and Sam Twiston-Davies staged the last race; most fell off and even a bit of rough riding failed to stop Sam T-D from winning.

Catherine (Myrtle) Flach's memorial service today in Northleach and then I am giving an after dinner talk to a huge crowd (unlikely) in the Queens Hotel tonight!