'In her training, she's absolutely flying' - getting inside the head of Emma Lavelle's stable stars with Chris Cook

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How much easier the job of training racehorses would be if physical fitness was the only target that needed to be hit. It would be hard enough, with so many potential problems arising, but the thing that gives our trainers that familiar careworn appearance is the need to figure out what's going on inside a horse's head.

A conversation with Emma Lavelle underlines the point. The Front Runner phones to talk about her Great Yorkshire contender, Tightenourbelts, and also to get the latest on her great grey mare My Silver Lining; in both cases, the Ogbourne Maizey trainer has clearly spent plenty of time wishing they could just talk to her.

"We always thought he was a nice horse," Lavelle says of Tightenourbelts, who is second in most betting lists for the Doncaster handicap chase on Saturday, at a general 10-1. Victories in each of the last two months show him to be the talented chaser that connections always reckoned he would be.

It's just taken him a bit longer than expected to get here. "He started last season well and we thought, great, but it didn't go to plan after Kempton. He just lost his bottle a bit behind Il Est Francais."

Tightenourbelts (right): getting back to his bestCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Lavelle is remembering the Kauto Star of 13 months ago, the race which gained Il Est Francais an enormous following as he bounded along in front and never looked like getting caught. Tightenourbelts seemed uncomfortable with the early pace, hesitated at the second and had a rival jump across him at the third. It was pretty game of him to keep going for a distant fourth place.

"It just goes to show, with these novices, when you're competing with a horse like that, whose cruising speed is so high, you can knock their confidence," Lavelle continues. "It took me the whole of the rest of that season and the summer to get that confidence back again.

"He's come back, his run at Exeter was brilliant, his run at Ludlow was another really good run. And we were thinking, right - now we seem to be back where we hoped we would be."

Tightenourbelts is not the sort of horse who relishes winter soft ground, so the appeal of Doncaster is that it can often provide a drier surface than other tracks at this time of year. But the Great Yorkshire will clearly provide a tougher test, with its big field.

"He has kept growing in confidence and I think he's ready for this. Clearly, he's a few pounds higher than he was but he's earned that. I'm looking forward to it. 

"He's had a good build-up. We'll plan the rest of the season on the back of what happens here."

No decision has been made about who rides. Harry Cobden and Rex Dingle have won on him already this season.

My Silver Lining was the yard's progressive handicapper last term, her rating climbing 20lb in response to a string of fine efforts, including a memorable victory in Warwick's Classic Chase. But the official assessor catches up with everyone in the end and her form figures this term are PP3P.

With the full benefit of hindsight, Lavelle thinks the Scottish Grand National in April may have been "a race too far", even though it was a perfectly valid target in light of what My Silver Lining had been doing at the time. "When she came back, she was so tired. Even turned out in a field, it took a long time to get her back where she was cantering about, fresh and well in herself.

My Silver Lining: 'flying' at homeCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

"She seemed chirpy when she came in at the start of this season but I think probably last year took its toll a bit and at the moment she's in a place where, if it looks like being a bit tough, she says: 'Hmmm, do you know what? Maybe I'll just save a little bit for myself.'"

Cheekpieces were tried on her at Wincanton last week, with the aim of helping her to travel a bit more strongly through the early stages. "But they had the opposite effect. She was like, 'What do you think you're doing, putting these on me?' 

"We'll run a few tests and make sure we're not missing anything. But I think we might give her a couple of days hunting, change how we train her a bit.

"In her training, she's absolutely flying. She's completely her normal self in her behaviour."

In the meantime, her rating is coming back down from a high of 133. She raced off 126 last week and can expect another drop in light of that run, perhaps taking her close to the 122 from which she won the Classic Chase. 

Lavelle's hope is that My Silver Lining will decide she's got her mojo back some day soon, possibly while moving comfortably through the middle of a race. But the trainer won't force the issue if the mare makes it clear that she's had enough.

Whether it be this year or three years from now, My Silver Lining will move on to her next job eventually. But there will still be plenty of horses in Wiltshire whose mental processes require unravelling.

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, the reigning Racing Writer of the Year, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.