Frozen Hereford bites the dust, but local trainer Tom Lacey keeps the show going

James Burn spends a chilly morning with Herefordshire trainer Tom Lacey

"You couldn't have picked a better morning to come," says a bright Tom Lacey from the breaking daylight of deepest Herefordshire, although a warning is not far off.

"But I think Hereford will struggle, you know," adds Lacey, based just 11 miles from the track in the most picturesque location.

It is not long after 7am, but the trainer, who enjoyed a breakthrough moment in the spotlight when Thomas Patrick and Jester Jet won at Aintree's Grand National meeting last year, has already been up two hours and, like a temperamental newborn baby, warns he can get cranky without enough sleep.

Lacey's baby days, however, are 40-odd years behind him and since then he has cut his teeth with pre-trainer Charles Radclyffe – "a genius" – ridden as an amateur and been head lad to Brian Meehan during his spell in Lambourn.

He has also become a renowned talent spotter for young jumpers and might even have another career as a Mystic Meg following Hereford's cancellation just after 9am.

Dorking Boy at Tom Lacey's yard on Wednesday morning

The show nearby is being kept on the road – literally in Lacey's case as he hops into his tractor to plough the deep sand gallop.

Jockeys Alan Johns and Sean Bowen are on hand to school but the weather has prevented that, although things could be worse – far worse.

"When the Beast from the East was here last year it was -12C and I hate to think what the wind-chill factor was," recalls Lacey from beneath his racing green snood.

The snow and ice did not mean things came to a halt

"Everything went on the walker and those who had entries cantered in the deep snow. This is nothing; I've had much harder frosts that have been more troublesome.

"Snow's your worst nightmare. We dug ourselves out last year to get somewhere. It was up north and the horse was a winner, but we had to clear the bottom road with the tractor to get the lorry down it. Last year was savage. That ridge there had 12ft drifts on it, huge."

With no declarations to make, runners to get ready or school run to worry about (wife Sophie is on the case), Lacey, who has not long returned from a skiing holiday on the Austrian slopes, is probably as relaxed as you'll find a trainer of a morning.

Tea, coffee, tea: Lacey is fuelled by hot drinks

Fuelled by a mixture of hot drinks – tea before 7am, coffee until 3pm and then tea again – he oversees a slick but possibly unique operation.

"There are no roles," he explains. "No assistant trainer or head lad etc, but everyone knows what to do and I've a great team."

The fact Eamonn O'Donovan has walked to work this morning perhaps underlines that, although he qualifies the tale by saying: "I'm usually one of the first in and the road down the hill looked a bit dodgy with the ice and snow, so I left the car and walked – I didn't want everyone to be passing me in a ditch!"

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