MORE horses and a bigger yard are on the agenda for Cartmel trainer James Moffatt as he plots for the future.

The Pit Farm Stables handler has enjoyed his most successful season, with 12 winners coming in, as well as running Highland Lodge in the Grand National earlier this month.

He currently has 22 horses at his South Cumbrian base, including regular winners Altruism and Morning Royalty, with space for five or six more in existing stalls.

While he hopes to add to his number, Moffatt does not want to use all the existing space – with some of the stables being too small to practically or comfortably house new horses – and is instead looking at expansion.

Recent renovation work at his yard has seen Moffatt, his wife Nadine and their one-year-old son Jenson move into a new-build home and land cleared behind the existing stables, where old staff accommodation stood unused.

Moffatt plans to use much of this area as a paddock, but he also wants to build new stalls to allow him to bring in extra horses, with hope the work to allow that, will be completed this year.

He said: “We’ve been discussing plans, and I think the work on the new stables will be going ahead towards the back end of the summer. They don’t take all that long to put up, and the plans are starting to come into place.

“It’s little steps forward, not trying to be in any sort of a rush with anything. We’re taking little steps, adding little bits here, little bits there, a few more stables.

“We don’t want things to happen too quickly. It’s a gradual process of building things up. We’re going in the right direction.”

As for the horses he hopes to bring in, he added: “We love the horses we have in the yard, and we want to make sure that, when we make additions to the yard, they are positive additions. We don’t want to just put horses in the yard that we don’t think can win races.

“That’s the aim of most yards, but we do think we do something a little different with them. It’s important to get horses who are capable and able to add something to the table.

“It’s a careful selection process whereby we have built up the lovely horses we have, with the support of our local owners. It has taken time, and these things do take time.

“So, yes, I am looking for new horses, but carefully.”

Expansion at Moffatt’s yard would involve additions to the stable staff as well.

The trainer sees that as beneficial to the local economy, with his practice to employ people from the immediate area – including current groom Charlotte Jones, who has worked herself up to a role as a conditional jockey for the yard.

Moffatt said: “Again, it’s the right additions to the yard, with the same ethos as the girls in the yard now, who are fantastic.

“You look for local people, I like to employ local people, I much prefer to do that, because it’s great for the area and they are happier at home. They can get involved and see what it means to us all.”