Evan Williams is pinning his hopes on an improvement in the weather having a positive effect on Barizan when he lines-up for the William Hill Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las on Saturday.
Barizan showed his best in the spring last season, finishing second in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham and winning the Champion Four Year Old Hurdle at Punchestown.
He has been well beaten in all his four starts so far this term but with spring not too far away now, Williams has reason to believe Barizan might be ready for a revival.
"It's a difficult situation with him because the Triumph Hurdle doesn't look like it's working out very well," the Llancarfan trainer told At The Races.
"The form looks particularly poor in the context of everything that's run since in that race apart from perhaps Alaivan of Edward O'Grady's but we'll go there, give it a shout and see how we get on.
"The thing is he is a different horse in the spring and that's the whole point. It was only two weeks before Cheltenham he started to bloom last year and it really was an extreme change.
"He looked to get better from Cheltenham and probably his best run was in Punchestown so we'll go there, give him a run and then hopefully as the spring progresses he will appreciate a bit of warmth and hopefully he'll start to bloom a bit."
He is also hoping to pick up some prize-money when Siberian Tiger makes his debut for the Llancarfan trainer in the totesport 0800 221 221 Contenders Hurdle at Sandown on Saturday.
Williams is pleased there will only be a handful of runners, though they will be a talented bunch headed by Binocular, as he is keen to get the former Michael Wigham inmate on the track.
"He's a nice horse that should be running in handicaps. That is the way we'll probably go," Williams told At The Races.
"We've done a lot of schooling over fences with him so we'll bide our time and that's where he could go in the spring.
"There's a chance of a few pound prize-money and it's somewhere nice to start.
"It's not ideal - a handicap would be a better route - but it will be a small field and it makes sense to have a run round there."
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