JAMES Moffatt is gearing up his Cartmel preparations as he looks to defend the trainers’ crown he collected at the track in 2016.

The local trainer – whose attentions until recently had been focused on Highland Lodge’s tilt at the Grand National – enjoyed great success at the South Lakes course last season.

Moffatt brought six winners just a few hundred yards down the road from Pit Farm Stables, as well as eight runners-up and 10 horses who came in third.

Altruism is being prepared to build on his two wins there last year – as well as a second place when a problem with his saddle handed victory to stable-mate Fantasy King – and the year before, while Morning Royalty was a May winner there and enjoyed an impressive success at Kelso earlier this month.

There are new horses as well, such as Space Ship and Strong Resemblance – neither of whom have run for Moffatt as of yet – with several of them set to be given warm-up runs ahead of the May Bank Holiday meeting at Cartmel towards the end of next month.

“We’ve got one or two nice recruits,” said Moffatt. “We got a nice horse, called Space Ship, the other day, out of Ireland. He’s a Champion Hurdle Trial winner, so hopefully he will be competing at our local meeting.

“We still haven’t taken the covers off Strong Resemblance yet as well. We’re very keen to get a run into Strong Resemblance. He needs to get his foot on the track and get a bit of experience. He does have a lot of ability, but he’s just a bit green and he needs to find his feet a little.

“We will probably be running some at Perth and Ayr, but the vast majority of them will be saved for our local meetings.

“There are a good group now for Cartmel, about 10 or so. There are all the old favourites like Altruism and Fantasy King, who will be going back.

“Morning Royalty won well the other day. He may well go to Ayr or Perth, then he will go to Cartmel as well.

“He has a career-best performance at Kelso, and that was great, absolutely amazing. He’s a brilliant horse.

“We’ll be hoping to have a bit of luck at Cartmel again.”

There is also the potential for more horses to come into Moffatt’s small yard in the May sales, ready to feature later in the summer at Cartmel.

The handler added: “With the May sales coming up, we’ve got some really interesting guys who are wanting new horses – owners from the local area, Barrow and the surrounding areas. It’s all exciting stuff.”