MARK TWAIN said there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. He could have been talking about Ann Duffield’s Flat season.

A look at the bare form isn’t the most encouraging – two wins from 48 runners and £8,862 in total prize money for 2010. That’s compared with 26 victors on the level the year before.

But this is where figures can be misleading.

The mistress at Constable Burton’s Sun Hill Farm didn’t really expect anything else.

“We can often be a little bit on the slow side to get going,” Duffield explained.

“That’s partly because we don’t run anything much in the winter – if at all.

“Our owners aren’t mad about going off to Lingfield and places for the all-weather.

“No one really likes the all-weather and, with a lot of our horses, because we ran them so much last year – and they did well – they needed a break.

“They can’t run all last summer, all winter and all this summer.”

Last year was arguably Duffield’s best as a trainer. After a bout of ringworm devastated the yard in 2008, the horses stayed healthy and smashed in the winners.

She did it with fewer of them.

Duffield added: “In March 2007, we had six empty boxes. In March 2010 we had 26. We have lost horses, the numbers are down and the recession has made a big difference.

“We achieved those winners last year from 30-odd in training. I think 57 per cent of our horses were either winners or placed.”

Duffield runs the yard with her husband George – the former Ebor and Yorkshire Oaks winning jockey – and is more horse psychologist than trainer.

She likes to know what makes her stable tick and getting inside their heads appears to be the key to her success – encouraging her horses to win again and again.

“It is more mental than physical,” she said. “If they are not dropped in at the deep end when they are very young they are allowed to progress slowly and gain confidence in what they are doing.

“They can win a race that’s within their grasp and then they improve, they win another one and so it goes. That’s where Just Lille, who has won nine for us now, started.

“She began on a mark of 58. It wasn’t that she was a 90 rated horse running way ahead of the handicapper. She wasn’t. She was what she was. But because her confidence kept growing, her ability was able to come through and she got better and better.

“I try to get inside their heads. I think it is really important.”

Salerosa is another case in point. The five-year-old mare won five times last year as her rating rocketed from 62 to 79. That’s a colossal 17 pounds of improvement.

The handicapper has had her in his grasp a little more in her four outings so far this season but few seriously doubt she will soon be returning to the winner’s enclosure.

Salerosa forms part of an armoury that’s well known, but whom Duffield hopes will perform again as the campaign winds its way into the summer. And the trainer is still hoping to find that special something.

“What we really want, and what we want and what we get aren’t the same thing, is another solid year – to keep them healthy, win lots of races and have something that can come and put us on the map,” Duffield said.

“We keep getting close to finding the elusive really good one and, for whatever reason, it doesn’t really go the way you want but it would be really nice to win some decent races and good prizes on a Saturday afternoon and attract some higher profile owners.

“The owners we have got are exceptional. We would just like more of them.”