SOFT GROUND specialist George The Best (5.25) is fancied to take full advantage of the predicted testing conditions at Newcastle today.

By the time Micky Hammond's sprinter goes to post for the final race on the card, the vcmobile.co.uk Handicap, the turf is sure to be well and truly churned up after bearing the brunt of nearly 100 runners galloping down the home straight.

Not many horses really relish this type of glue-pot surface, but George The Best is a likely exception.

He has quite a high knee action, which helps the hooves slice through the soil rather like a plough in a muddy field.

Although Hammond's three-year-old won twice last term, he has plunged over a stone down the weights after a series of lacklustre performances.

In such circumstances there's nothing much to do from a training point of view other than keep plugging away, and in this case persistence appears as if it is about to pay dividends since George The Best hinted at a return to form by finishing fifth at Ayr recently.

Newmarket-based Michael Jarvis sends Safirah (3.05) up to the Tyneside track in search of an elusive first success.

Safirah, who has been trying for a while to get off the mark, came closest when runner-up to a rare John Oxx-trained Irish raider at Bath ten days ago. That's the sort of stuff which looks good enough to take care of this afternoon's opposition, with the codicil of having a small each-way saver on Rosie Mac, just the type to go well at a double-digit starting price.

Followers of the column will have to be patient if they are intent on backing Band at Nottingham in the closing one-mile Apprentice Handicap.

Band (5.45), who failed to score at either two or three years of age, finally got to grips with the job when breaking his duck at Yarmouth in mid-August.

Normal service was soon resumed when he ended down the pack in seventh spot at Carlisle on his latest outing, but at least he was only a beaten a total of three lengths in a bunched finish.

I've got a hunch everything happened just a little too fast for Bryan MacMahon's gelding at Carlisle, where the ground was like lightning.

If that was the case the far easier underfoot conditions he will now encounter are certain to aid his cause no end.

There's some decent National Hunt action at Chepstow where Wiscalitis (3.15) has the chance to atone for a woeful effort when an odds-on favourite at Towcester.

Having won in a common canter on his British debut at Market Rasen, the classy French recruit was then backed as if defeat was out of the question.

Not for the first time, nor the last, Wiscalitus proved there's no such thing as a racing certainty by being turned over.

Quite what went wrong with the Venetia Williams five-year-old at Towcester we shall never know,.

But judged on his ultra-smart flat from in France, he's well capable of doing a whole lot better in the vcbet.co.uk Novices' Hurdle.

* Newcastle's officials are holding a precautionary 7.30 inspection this morning in view of the poor overnight weather forecast.