Spare a thought for Roxburghshire trainer Willie Amos. He trains 20 horses at a stable on the family sheep and cattle farm that can be found in the Teviot Dales. At a thousand feet above sea level, life has been far from easy of late.

Having borne the worst of the big freeze in recent weeks, Amos is hoping that stable star Lie Forrit can continue his rise to the peak of the staying hurdling ranks if he runs in the Grade Two Betfair Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham’s Festival Trials card next week.

The progressive six-year-old has won four of his six starts over hurdles, including victory at Cheltenham in the Listed race at Cheltenham in November, and he followed that up by comfortably winning a Pertemps Hurdle qualifier at Newbury.

Since being increased in distance to three miles in 2005, the Cleeve Hurdle has become the leading trial for the World Hurdle. Inglis Drever was second in 2007 before landing the stayers’ crown for a second occasion two months later and he completed an unprecedented hat-trick of World Hurdle victories the following season, having previously landed the Betfair Cleeve Hurdle in fine style.

Last season, Big Buck’s defeated odds-on favourite Punchestowns by four lengths and the pair filled the same positions when renewing rivalry in the World Hurdle at the Festival in March.

The main problem for Amos now is making up for lost time when he has not been able to exercise his horses. “We’re hoping to get Lie Forrit ready in time for the Cleeve Hurdle,” he said. “We’ve been using the indoor school with him but I won’t know what I have gained or lost with him until we get him out on the gallops, which will hopefully be tomorrow – I have a JCB clearing them at the moment.

“I need to get three gallops into him before deciding whether to go down to Cheltenham with him. He has only been trotting and cantering inside but he was fit before we had all of the snow, so we will try to get him ready for next weekend. He certainly looks tremendous but I need to get all three pieces of work into him.

“We always knew that he wanted a trip and that the step up to three miles would play to his strengths, but we didn’t expect him to progress quite as much as he has so far this season. He was carrying a fair bit of weight at Newbury and he was still idling in front – he is certainly a bit quirky but he keeps finding more.

“We’ve entered him in the World Hurdle and I don’t think that we have any alternatives with him – if he ran in the Pertemps Final he would be lumbered with top-weight. Everybody seems to be running scared of Big Buck’s but you can’t be afraid of one horse and nothing fazes Lie Forrit – he hits a flat spot in his races but he stays all day.”

Paul Wheeler