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Plus 14 and dry when driving in.

Tom Bellamy was in to ride out a couple of lots.

The skip is full and the tidy up continues..

There are good reasons for having open days and one is that once a year we do a huge tidy up.. Hoarding means rubbish so rubbish goes, like it or not, and I am sure those unloading the Smiths Skip will find some very interesting things in it.

The wine arrived this morning. Savage Selection’s finest (within reason) in screw top form .. easier to open when the thirst needs quenching.

David Morgan from The Golden Heart in charge of catering as usual. Barry brought his amplifier and speakers .. so it goes on.. oh and the brochure arrived yesterday all looking glossy having been produced by Wilderspin in Cheltenham..they seem to do most trainers open day brochures..

Kerry Bellamy, my PA, controls the show, keeping everybody upto speed while writing name cards while Clare sorts the flowers.. I watch!!

Yes a great deal of work goes into an open day.

A great deal of work goes into getting a horse to the races too.. And on that note I am heading to Ascot later to watch Sunblazer perform. I enjoy my forays into the flat racing side of racing.. especially at Ascot. For my thoughts on Sunblazers chances please click here.

We have no runners over the weekend which is not on purpose but helpful.

Graham Potts our vet was in this morning..

The cricket was again won by England. The latest ODI was not quite as one sided as last time. England really do have a very good side

The US Open is on the go and Andy Murray makes it through to the third round . He is favourite to win.

More news from the past..

The Great Fire of London started today 350 years ago..

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky.

The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.

They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of 'Holding a Wake'.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people, so they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house and reuse the grave.

When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realised they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, thread it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.

Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus someone could be, 'Saved by the Bell' or was considered a 'Dead Ringer'.

Here endeth your history lessons..