Emma O'Gorman's Carbonara recipe

John's regularly complaining that there aren't enough recipes on my blog and Patrick Stock from Australia has recently moaned that the horse biographies were out of date (at least somebody reads them).

Well the bios have now been brought bang up to date and here's a recipe from Emma O'Gorman on how to make Carbonara sauce which I gleaned from her at the breeze-ups after celebrating her good sale of an Invincible Spirit filly, who just happens to be a three-parts sister to my own Desiree. Emma was also kind enough to give me a giant slab of ham from their hospitality box as she was whizzing off to France the next day for the Arqana breeze-up and wouldn't have had time to eat it.

She suggested I chop up bits of this lovely ham, whisk two eggs together with some olive oil, cook up some pasta and when ready, drain and move to a warmed bowl (this is crucial) with all the other ingredients. She doesn't use garlic which John was happy about. I'm a garlic fiend and would probably add it plus lots of black pepper and grated parmesan. We tried it the next day and it was delicious.

Onto more trifling matters such as who will win the Derby? It's run on John's birthday this year and, much as I dislike Epsom, I expect we'll make the trip. It's appalling to admit that I have not been to the Derby since I left London just after Kris Kin's victory.

I'm very happy that Centennial won at Sandown today (and was lucky enough to see him at a press morning at John Gosden's yard) and shall be rooting for him. It seems unlikely that there could be a Gosden double but Dar Re Mi was also hugely impressive at Sandown and it would be lovely to see Singspiel have the Oaks winner.

We've really enjoyed the warm sunny weather today, especially the dogs who spend much more time lounging in the yard now that it's no longer sub-zero temperatures. Had a nice wander over to racecourse side on Panto accompanying Ben Bhraggie who really seems to be enjoying being back in training. He's a different horse this year. Ben still has a lot of growing up to do but hopefully he'll be ready for the Grand National in 2013!

Lots to look forward to this week with three runners at Folkestone on Thursday followed by the Guineas meeting and truckloads of visitors here at BHS. Better start changing the beds.