Roger Hoad will help prepare a high-class group of Cheltenham runners from France at Windmill Lodge, Lewes.

The former trainer will provide a staging post for the horses of top Gallic jumps trainer Guillaume Macaire, who has been successful in several cross-Channel forays in the past three years.

The visiting party will arrive in a fortnight, seven days before the start of the prestigious national hunt festival.

Horses include Jair du Cochet, Lilium de Cotte, who runs in the Triumph Hurdle, and Douze Douze, who won his first chase by 30 lengths at Auteuil. They will be accompanied by jockeys Jacques Ricou and Bruno Gicquel.

After a two-day lorry journey from their base in Bordeaux in south west France, the horses will be ready to unwind.

Hoad said: "They will relax very quickly, I'm sure. Guillaume will bring his own feed.

"He will even have an electric boiler in the lorry to prepare barley or linseed mash the horses have as soon as they are settled in. The two jockeys are in the lorry as well.

"Guillaume tries to avoid stabling his runners at the racecourse. He feels they are more relaxed in a yard away from the racecourse bustle until the day of the race.

"We are ready for the invasion. The party will arrive here with plenty of time to regroup. The horses will leave Lewes at 6am on race day with the minimum of fuss."

Windmill Lodge has been the base for some venerable trainers in the past - Towser Gosden and Harry Hannon trained there after the war.

Hoad said: "Guillaume's stable is close to La Pamir racecourse and he has wonderful turf and all-weather gallops and schooling grounds second to none."

Last year, Macaire was unlucky not to win at Cheltenham when Japhet, who had never fallen, came to grief at the second last fence with the race at his mercy.

Hoad got in contact with Macaire when he moved to France two years ago.

Hoad, now back in Sussex, said: "After my call we met at the races at Pompadour, where Guillaume wins more races than anyone else, and we seem to get on very well."

Macaire did not race more in the United Kingdom because he lacked a base.

Hoad said: "When we came back to England I faxed Guillaume a map with all the jumping tracks and distances marked and pointed out how well placed we were at Lewes and it has gone on from there."

Hoad and his wife played host to the French team at Christmas when Jair du Cochet won at Kempton Park.

He said: "We had a total of eight Frenchmen to Christmas dinner and we all enjoyed it enormously."

Last weekend at Ascot was a less successful visit. Jair du Cochet and Douze Douze lost their riders with jumping errors. Hoad said: "The errors were uncharacteristic because French horses are so well schooled and face a greater variety of obstacles at home than in England.

"It was fascinating to watch Douze Douze after his fall early on, leading the field and jumping every fence as straight as an arrow for a circuit and a half.

"In fact, he set off on a third circuit, this time tackling the hurdles, before he was caught.

"I won't have criticisms of French riders. It is a different style of riding over fences in France, where the jockey sits still and allows the horse to see his own stride and judge his take-off point."

Even though Ricou and Gicquel are leading riders in their own country, they have been upset by criticisms, largely on the attheraces programme, which is available in France but often fronted by people whose experience of race riding is zero.

They find it insulting they are compared unfavourably with our own jockeys.

Macaire spent six months with Guy Harwood at Pulborough 20 years ago and will be grateful to Sussex again should his latest visit to Windmill Lodge prove beneficial at Cheltenham.

Hoad had a licence at Windmill Lodge for 20 years before passing the reins on to his son Mark, 32.

But he clearly likes to keep his hand in with his French connection and will be justifably proud if he can help provide a Cheltenham winner for Macaire.