Horse Racing: Silver By Nature on the move

Silver By Nature has been switched from Milnathort to Michael Scudamore's yard in Herefordshire to put the finishing touches on his Coral Welsh National bid.

The grey's trainer, Lucinda Russell, has been struggling to keep her string in peak condition due to the difficult weather conditions in Scotland and, as a result, has moved her stable star further south.

He is situated at Scudamore's yard, whose father, Peter, is Russell's partner, until the big race at Chepstow on Saturday, in which he finished second last season.

"Silver By Nature got in a lorry a couple of days ago and he's now down at Michael Scudamore's yard in Herefordshire," said Russell.

"Michael very kindly let us have a box down there and the British Horseracing Authority have cleared it, so he's been in the warm Herefordshire sunshine this morning working on grass and woodchip.

"We'd love to win the Welsh National and in Silver By Nature we've got the kind of horse that can do it. They've got rain forecast at Chepstow and the ground will be heavy and that's exactly what he needs."

Meanwhile, officials at Huntingdon have announced an 8am precautionary inspection ahead of today's scheduled meeting.

The track was perfectly raceable yesterday but clerk of the course Andrew Morris is being cautious due to the possibility of temperatures falling to 0C overnight.

"We've seen a slight worsening in the forecast," explained Morris. "We're forecast plus 1C but there is some talk it could hit 0C for a time as well.

"I think we're being over cautious, but we just want to keep everyone informed in case the forecast is wrong. We're perfectly raceable and it it gets down to plus 1C or touches 0C, then we'll have no problems."