Amos critical of Leopardstown ground Willie Amos has switched his attentions to the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham for Lie Forrit after his late withdrawal from the woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown. The progressive five-year-old, a winner of six of his 10 starts to date, was due to have his first run in Graded company on Monday. However, Amos was critical of the state of the Leopardstown ground and refused to risk his stable star on the frosty terrain. "I thought there were still frozen patches in the ground and I couldn't believe they didn't have another inspection," said Amos. "They said we could give the horse a little work on the chase course down by the rail but you couldn't work on it because it was rock hard. "The frost did lift a bit about half an hour before the first race but it was only taking the white lime off. "It was an expensive trip for us and it was a really pressured decision, but I wasn't comfortable about running. "I would never have forgiven myself if anything had happened to him. "He's only five and I wanted to run him but I wasn't happy with the ground at all. "He'll go to the Cleeve now. After that hard race yesterday I'm not sure if Big Buck's and Karabak will run in it. "It was very disappointing for me, it was 20 hours driving for nothing, but if you are worried about things like that you shouldn't run."
