SANDOWN'S card is of sufficient quality to whet the appetite of any jumps fan, although that's still no excuse for the fixture planners failing to schedule a single meeting in the North this afternoon.

Top-of-the-bill at the south London venue is the Future Stars Chase, a race which despite attracting only four runners lives up to its name, especially as it features the reappearance of The Listener, partnered by Sedgefield-born, Andrew Thornton.

Thornton and The Listener (2.35) hit it off from the word go last season, racking up a spectacular hat-trick at Exeter, Windsor, and Cheltenham, but just as they were starting to look like world-beaters, the wheels fell off.

It was an ignominious reversal of fortunes, Andrew twice being jettisoned from the saddle as result of uncharacteristic errors at Lingfield then, far more importantly, in Cheltenham's Grade One SunAlliance Novices' Chase.

Having had the benefit of of an extra long 261-day holiday, hopefully The Listener will have forgotten all about those mishaps and will put himself in the Gold Cup picture with a clear round.

Kim Bailey, once such a potent force in the National Hunt game with champions like Master Oats and Alderbrook, is a trainer desperate to get his name back in lights.

Sooner or later Kim is going to stage some sort of revival in which the injury-prone Kelantan (3.10) could play a leading role, provided he stays sound.

Restricted to just a couple of outings last term, the nine-year-old's course and distance close-up third placing behind Native Ivy gives sufficient encouragement to believe he could take the Faucet Handicap Chase for Bailey.

Declan Carroll, who operates out of the splendidly-named Warthill, near York, has fair prospects of maintaining an already decent all-weather strike-rate by scoring with Wolverhampton-bound Dudley Docker (4.50).

Apprentice jockey Kelly Harrison gets a good tune from Dudley Docker, drawn in stall one, which normally confers quite a significant advantage to runners able to hold a favourable early pitch against the far rail.

* Testing conditions would not undermine Paul Nicholls' confidence in Kauto Star for the William Hill - Tingle Creek Chase.

The brilliant winner of the Betfair Chase at Haydock last time drops down from three to two miles as he bids for back-to-back victories in tomorrow's Sandown showpiece.

''I wouldn't worry if it came up very soft, stamina would come more into play,'' said Nicholls.

Kauto Star put himself in line for a £1m bonus when winning the Betfair Chase, but Nicholls says he will not be upset if they miss the second leg of the series, the Stan James King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.

''If we win on Saturday and miss the King George, no-one is going to be crying about it because there's plenty of races in the spring,'' said the Ditcheat handler.

''But there's three weeks and two days after Saturday (to the King George), he's only going two miles and not three and if he comes out of this race like he has his others this season I can assure you it won't be a problem.''

The layers find Kauto Star hard to oppose as they make him odds-on for the Grade One feature, for which a field of seven has been declared.

''Kauto Star is the highest-rated chaser since Desert Orchid and seems to have scared off the opposition,'' said totesport spokesman Damian Walker.