It was almost 12 months ago that Male Ana Mou gave Lewes trainer Jamie Poulton his biggest success over hurdles.

The six-year-old, as he was then, trotted up at long odds in Newbury's Gerry Fielden Hurdle and promised an exciting season in long distances races culminating at the national hunt meeting at Cheltenham.

It was not to be, for in the heavy ground at Newbury, Male Ana Mou strained a tendon and had to be rested.

The fates and foot-and-mouth decreed that Cheltenham would be abandoned anyway, but now, a year later, Jamie and his star hurdler are ready to resume the challenge.

Poulton said: "It wasn't a bad injury, more of a warning really. We stopped training him immediately and gave him as long as he needed to come right.

"Mala Ana Mou went to my sister, Leesa Long, who has been hacking him round the roads and she tells me he will be ready to come back in a couple of weeks."

Cheltenham in March will once again be the ultimate target and on the way Jamie would like to take in a major race at the big Christmas meeting at Kempton Park.

He said: "I'd also like to win the National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell again.

"But we will travel far and wide to find suitable long distance races for him."

Male Ana Mou has been ridden to victory both by the (unrelated) Thorntons, Andrew and Robert, and these will be the preferred jockeys once again.

In the meantime Pipsallio, who won the Esher Cup on the flat at Sandown last year, will soon be back in action and Jamie has set his heart on winning the Trainers' Challenge at Plumpton this season with Tommy Carson, who broke the two-and-a-half-mile chase record on the course recently.

He picked out some other horses for Argus readers to follow in Achilles Son, who likes soft ground and will run over middle distances on the turf. Both Nautical Warning and Sammy's Shuffle are expected to star on the all-weather surface during the off season.

During the summer Jamie had an operation on one eye which improved his direct eyesight but limited the peripheral vision.

He said: "Oscar Urbina, who rides for me on the flat, complained to his boss, Newmarket trainer James Fanshawe, that I cut him dead on the race course the other day.

"The fact was I just didn't see him and I'm sorry he was offended and of course he will still be riding for me, I think he's very good."

So it seems that the game birds in Scotland may have an easy time of it this weekend - Jamie and his brother Julian are spending a few days on the moors - while Jamie's wife Camilla keeps an eye on the horses at home.