William Amos's Cheltenham plans for Lie Forrit hit by freeze-up

Lie Forrit, whose rise through the ranks of staying hurdlers has been one of the stories of the season, could miss his intended prep race for the Cheltenham Festival if the current freeze continues, according to Willie Amos, who trains the six-year-old in the Scottish borders. Amos had hoped to run Lie Forrit in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham's Festival Trials day at the end of this month but his small yard, on a hill farm near Hawick, has been hit harder than most by the icy conditions. "We've had snow for over two weeks," Amos said yesterday, "and on Wednesday we got 18 inches overnight. Since then the horses have only been able to get on to the walker and I had to dig out the snow around the stable door before we could even do that. The farm is at about 600 feet and because we lie away from the sun it's -8C all day. Last week we managed to get half the gallop clear but we've lost the last fortnight basically. "We still want to go to the Cleeve Hurdle but, if we can't get him ready for that, the only alternative would be the Blue Square [Rendlesham] Hurdle at Haydock on 20 February. That's as late as you'd want to be going to a race before Cheltenham." Lie Forrit has already missed one race in the last fortnight, as he travelled to Leopardstown for a valuable event at the track's Christmas meeting, only for Amos to decide that he would not risk his stable star on near-frozen ground. "It was a difficult decision and after going all that way it would have been easier to decide to run than to pull him out," the trainer said, "but I wouldn't have worked him on ground like that and so I couldn't run him on it either. "It was an expensive trip and a waste of time but, if I'd run him and he'd got a leg six weeks later, I'd always have been blaming that. I like to look after my horses, and how good is this one going to be when he gets over a fence?" Lie Forrit has won six of his 10 starts, including his last two outings in valuable handicaps at Cheltenham and Newbury, and his rating has now risen to a level that justifies a crack at the World Hurdle itself at Cheltenham, rather than the Pertemps Final Handicap. He is the undoubted star of Amos's small yard and in a National Hunt world that is increasingly dominated by major stables, his homespun background appeals to many racing fans. The fact that Campbell Gillies, his young jockey, is the grandson of John McNeill, his 84-year-old owner, adds to the romance, while Gillies has also maintained his partnership with Lie Forrit despite suffering a nasty fall when the gelding ran out with victory in sight at Aintree earlier this season. "Last year we were off for eight days and then for another 11 days," Amos says. "If we can get rid of this snow now, we'll be no worse off really than we were then but it's very frustrating. "I've been feeling very low this week, without the adrenaline that you get from racing. It's your life, your social life, everything. I miss the gallops too, normally I'd ride five lots every day, so at the moment it's different, very different. "The [British Horseracing Authority] are saying that they will put on extra meetings when it's all over, which is good, but I just hope that they're not all straight away as we won't be ready. We'll need at least a fortnight after it leaves us before we are." There seems little prospect that National Hunt racing can resume before the end of the week, with Thursday's meetings at Catterick and Towcester likely to be abandoned after inspections today. Precautionary inspections have also been called before today's two all-weather meetings at Kempton and Wolverhampton, with further snow having been forecast overnight.