LOUGH Kent is running into form for trainer James Moffatt, who has a diamond summer lined up for his mount at Cartmel.

The eight-year-old hurdler claimed a maiden win for the Pit Farm Stables team when coming home under Brian Hughes in the STP Construction Handicap Hurdle at Newcastle last month.

It was a first success at the fifth attempt since Lough Kent made the move to South Cumbria from the yard of top trainer Nicky Henderson, with whom he had a single triumph over fences at Warwick in 2015.

The two-mile victory came in his third hurdles outing for Moffatt, with two initial chases seeing him pull up after hitting a flight in the first and looking uncomfortable all the way in the second.

However, conditional jockey Charlotte Jones nursed him back to his best in runs at Sedgefield and Haydock to set up Hughes to take him home at Newcastle.

Now Moffatt is confident there will be more success down the line, and said: “The first time we started riding him, we recognised we've got a decent horse here. We were fairly confident in his first run, but it went wrong when he knocked himself and pulled up.

“We ran him again over fences and I think it was probably clear that his confidence wasn't where it really should be.

“When we ran him back over hurdles with Charlotte Jones on him at Sedgefield, he was still fairly hesitant, but he benefited from that run and then had a very good run under Charlotte at Haydock where he was only beaten six lengths in what was a pretty decent race.

“I feel that the win was a reflection of where the horse is, it was just his confidence that was the issue. There might have been an issue with him coming off the ground – anyone who knows horses knows that they don't really want to come off the ground, because they know that when they land, it hurts. It was just a case of building his confidence up, and Charlotte did a really good job with that.”

While there will be more runs before Cartmel opens up for the season in May – with the horse, along with several others in the yard currently resting after a minor throat infection – Moffatt believes Jones has the chance of success on board at his home track.

One race they will be targeting is the lady riders' handicap, which for the past two seasons has seen Lancaster jeweller Banks-Lyon present a special prize to the winning jockey.

“Charlotte will be back on the horse shortly and we're hoping Lough Kent might be able to go for the valuable lady riders' race at Cartmel in the summer, where there is the £5,000 diamond necklace – not that I'd be wearing it! Although, with a five-grand diamond necklace, I wouldn't mind wearing it!” laughed Moffatt.

“Charlotte has done a great job with him. With Lough Kent, it was always a case of when he was going to win, rather than if.

“He is a little bit like a Rubik's Cube. Three or four sides were there with all the correct colours, but there were a few bits we had to sort out. Often you will get that – a nice little horse with maybe a few issues and you have to know what path to take. When you go down the right path with them, you get all the colours in the correct place and they start winning for you.

“He's a lovely horse, we've always liked him and he has always worked very well. He will work as well as anything in the yard. We knew he had the engine, it was just going to the course with the confidence in him, which is what Charlotte has done for him.”

He added: “He's effectively had five races for us, but the first race he pulled up after jumping four fences, and he hasn't really been hard on himself. He only really had a race in the last two, where he has got his head down and ran.

“For three races he has been saying he wasn't sure, he wasn't confident, so he hasn't given himself a hard time. He's got plenty of petrol left in the tank.

“At Cartmel, they go May, June, July and August, so he could have four runs during the summer there. You're not being hard on him there at all.”