For Cartmel trainer James Moffatt, the last few months have been the toughest during his long association with horse racing, but he can now finally look forward to getting his charges back on his home track.

The first of three meetings behind closed doors will be taking place at Cartmel Racecourse on Sunday and Moffatt is hoping to have five runners involved during it.

He'll head into the weekend with a spring in his step after training his first winner since jump racing resumed, after 18/1 shot Golden Town won the class 4 Handicap Hurdle at Perth with Charlotte Jones on board.

Moffatt will feel all of the hard work his stable continued to put in during lockdown, when they had no idea when the horses would be racing again, has started to bear fruit.

He said: "It's been a long haul, but we've all been in the same boat.

"In terms of racing we'd been in limbo land for months, it's been much anticipated and we're really looking forward to it."

Horse racing led the way when competitive sport was allowed to resume in this country following lockdown, with flat racing getting back under way straight away on June 1 and jump racing waiting another month before its own comeback.

It all followed arguably the most uncertain period in the sport's history, however, with Moffatt saying: "For the first month of lockdown, I think everyone was terrified.

"I need to pay a huge tribute to my own staff for just keeping going when there didn't seem to be any point in keeping going, but the welfare of the horses was my only concern at that point.

"There's no off button with a racehorse and we have horses suited for summer, late summer and early autumn so we'd have missed the ground if lockdown had gone on for another two or three months.

"But the one certainty of lockdown is that you're going to come out of it, so that was our mindset, which we need just to keep going with our daily chores. Fortunately, there was light at the end of the tunnel."

Moffatt, who believes the Covid checks at racecourses exceed those outlined by the Government, is keen on Oakmont's chances at the weekend and is pleased with how Native Fighter has trained, while he believes Aptly Put has ridden himself back into form.