Trainer James Moffatt is hoping to reach the landmark of 50 winners at his ‘home’ course at Cartmel this year, ahead of tomorrow’s first meeting of the season at the South Lakes venue.

Moffatt was champion trainer at Cartmel for three years running from 2015 and 2017, but had to watch Donald McCain take that title last year, with the horses in his Pit Farm Stables going through a tough patch.

However, 2019 has brought with it shoots of recovery so far, with Just A Par running in the Grand National, before a return to form from his stable that could not have been better timed last week.

First, there was the shock victory for Golden Town at Sedgefield, at 66/1, last Tuesday with Lough Kent’s win at Kelso following two days later, with both horses ridden by Barrow jockey Charlotte Jones.

Moffatt is hoping that momentum can be taken into this week’s Whit meeting, saying: “You look forward to Cartmel – obviously when you have runners in the big meetings at Aintree and Cheltenham you look forward to those as well, but it’s been a happy hunting ground for us.

“Obviously with us being local to the track, it’s a bit special for us, so we’re hoping for a good day.

“I’ve managed to ride and train 46 winners at Cartmel, so my target is fairly obvious from a personal level. It’s just to have ridden and trained 50 winners at Cartmel, that’s my target this year so hopefully we’ll be able to get to that.”

Four of Moffatt’s stable are set to run tomorrow, with both Boruma and Altruism on the form for the Campbell and Rowley Catering and Events Handicap Hurdle in the final race of the day at 5:35.

Mega Double is set to run the opener, the Novice Hurdles, at 2:05, with Morning Royalty ready to go for the Handicap Chases at 3:15 and 4.25 and the likes of She Got Fast and Start Seven are slated for Monday.

Moffatt said: “Not many people at Cartmel have had 50 or above winners, riding and training, so that would be brilliant for me personally.

“It has been very good to me and we have quite a few specialist horses, but we have nowhere near the strength we had two years ago, which is a consequence of the bad summer we had last year.

“We’ve had to retire some horses and things like that, so we’re not as strong but hopefully we might be able to replenish a few of them with recruits.”