FLEET-FOOTED Forest Gunner (2.25) faces his sternest test to date when he lines up for this afternoon's £120,000 Red Square Vodka Gold Cup at Haydock.

Forest Gunner is unbeaten in two starts over the Grand National fences, which means theoretically at least he shouldn't have any problem with Haydock's less demanding obstacles.

His naturally exuberant front-running style will also have many of his opponents in trouble from a very early stage in the contest, simply because Richard Ford's son of the great Gunner B, possesses far more natural speed than any of his 11 opponents.

It all sounds plain sailing from a punting point of view so far, but the $64,000 question as whether he has sufficient puff in his body to last out the three-and-a-half-mile trip will only be answered at around 2.35pm.

Although it's a 50-50 ball, at odds of 10-1 with most of the leading layers, the risk that he will keep galloping all the way to the line is well worth taking as far as I'm concerned.

Some of the selection's critics will say that the stamina-sapping soft ground may provide extra difficulties, however after dusting off my 2001 form book the records show that as a novice' hurdler Forest Gunner routed a fair field by 20 lengths in hock-deep conditions at Wetherby.

More of a thorn in his side may come from the ante-post favourite, Baron Windrush, who foiled a potential 9-1 winning nap for the column when cruelly cutting down D'Argent 50 yards from the jam-stick at Warwick over a similarly testing trip in January.

l Paul Nicholls warmed up for a multi-pronged attack on today's big prizes with a winner at Sandown yesterday as talented ex-French performer L'Ange Au Ciel took the feature Allied Irish Bank (GB) Private Banking Handicap Chase, writes WILLIAM HAYLER.

Nicholls, a 2-1 chance with Paddy Power to break the stranglehold of Martin Pipe on the trainers' championship, goes into the weekend with runners in every valuable race across all four jumps meetings.

And with his Cheltenham team also getting into gear, Nicholls hopes to keep his good form going for as long as possible.

''Horses like Azertyuiop and Strong Flow, who will be among our biggest hopes at the Festival, are going along nicely and this fellow could join them,'' said the trainer as he welcomed L'Ange Au Ciel into the winner's enclosure after the £15,000 race.

Approaching the second-last fence, no less than five of the seven runners were battling it out for the lead.

But the fall of outsider Goldbrook, who had just taken the lead, left the race at the mercy of L'Ange Du Ciel (4-1) and jockey Ruby Walsh.

And untidy jumps at the last by a couple of his rivals allowed the winner to hold on by a neck from the late charge of Supreme Developer.

''He hurt his knee when he fell at Windsor on his first run and it took some time for him to come right,'' said Nicholls.

''He's the sort of horse who we wanted to have 120 per cent right today so I wouldn't be sure how much he will come on for the run.

''But he's in the Grand Annual and the Mildmay Of Flete at Cheltenham and we will have to look at them for him.

''I'm not sure which one we'll go for because I'm not entirely sure about whether his trip is two miles or further.

"We could choose to miss Cheltenham altogether, but I think he's a nice horse.''