HENNESSY Cognac Gold Cup flop Frenchman's Creek (2.55) is fancied to redeem himself in the £50,000 Mears Group Handicap Chase at Cheltenham.

Hughie Morrison's ten-year-old was never going well at Newbury, eventually pulling up five fences from the finish.

Morrison could find nothing wrong with Frenchman's Creek when he returned to base and wasn't long in nominating Prestbury Park as his next racecourse engagement.

No great surprises there since the selection is something of a Cheltenham specialist, having swept aside the opposition to scoop the immensely competitive William Hill Handicap Chase at the 2002 Festival.

It does seem as if Hughie's charge reserves all his best efforts for the undisputed headquarters of National Hunt racing, and there's one more very important plus following the news that Irish ace, Barry Geraghty, has been booked to do the steering.

The other feature event on the card is the Sporting Index Handicap Chase over a trip not far short of four miles.

In a similar contest last month a large horse blanket would have covered the first three in the frame, Spot Thedifference, Star Performance, and Luzcadou (1.45).

Although the in-form trio re-oppose at roughly the same weights, on the strength of the fact that Ferdy Murphy's stable is going sublimely well the third-placed Luzacadou might easily turn the tables on the his two rivals.

Bob's Buster (2.45) looks pretty good to repeat his 2003 victory in Doncaster's Holly Handicap Chase.

Hailing not far from Newcastle at Grange Farm, Newburn, trainer Bob Johnson worked miracles with his gelding last season to bag a total of four races over fences.

As result of that string of successes, the spring-heeled gelding moved sharply up the ratings to a mark of 104.

Having reached his ceiling, he has subsequently failed to add to the tally, but the Official Handicapper has relented and now that Bob's Buster is back down to 98 his turn is again near.

One of the major hard-luck stories this winter on the all-weather circuit revolves around last Friday's Wolverhampton short-head runner-up, Rancho Cucamongo, who almost certainly would have caught Ryedane but for being drawn out in the local high street.

Rancho Cucamongo (1.25) is only marginally better off in stall ten today, but I think she's a filly on the upgrade and will be hard to stop on her return to the course in the Bet At The Races Handicap.

Richard Hannon's former assistant, Sylvester Kirk, is always to be feared on the sand, which gives a positive pointer to the prospects of Just Fly (3.40).

Connections had the cash down when Just Fly narrowly failed to catch Middleton Grey on his last visit to the course.

That race was over six furlongs, whereas he's now stepped up to an arguably far more suitable trip of a mile-and-half-a furlong for the Littlewoods Handicap.

A typically vigorous Kieren Fallon drive got Turtle Patriarch (4.40) up to win from an unpromising position at the Midlands venue three weeks ago.

Fallon is enjoying a busman's holiday abroad at present, but there's no doubting the worth of his replacement, Simon Whitworth.

I expect Whitworth to enjoy an armchair ride on Amanda'a Perrett's fast-improving three-year-old in the closing mile-and-six-furlong contest.

* Graham Lee will undergo surgery to insert a plate into his broken arm today.

Lee, who won the Grand National on Amberleigh House in April, broke his lower right arm in a fall from Fields Of Home at Doncaster ten days ago.

The northern-based rider visited Jockey Club specialist Dr Michael Foy yesterday and has been advised to have a plate put in to help speed his recovery.

His agent Richard Hale said: ''Graham told me Dr Foy is going to put a plate in tomorrow. He said it would need plating for a quicker recovery and that's pretty much it.''

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