ACES FOUR (3.30) takes his first step on the trail towards next year's Cheltenham Gold Cup by lining up for this afternoon's Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby.

Ferdy Murphy's stable-star won many admirers when pounding a high-class field into submission with a flawless exhibition at this year's Grand National meeting.

After such a scintillating run Aces Four was made hot favourite for the Punchestown Festival, where he had the race at his mercy, only to toss it away with a catastrophic final-fence blunder.

"His confidence doesn't seem to have been affected by that fall and Graham (Lee) is thrilled with him, although he will come on for the run," explained Murphy.

It's worth noting the word of warning straight from the trainer's mouth, nonetheless Aces Four has got to start somewhere and even at 85 per cent fit he looks worth an each-way bet.

Fast ground has sadly scared off a few of the top John Smith's Hurdle entries, a contest in which Black Jack Ketchum (2.20) attempts to redeem his tarnished reputation.

Black Jack Ketchum was unbeaten during 2005/2006, posting a magnificent five-timer, including famous wins at both the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals.

Tony McCoy's mount appeared to be invincible, but last season it all went belly-up for the dynamic duo when the combination disappointed three times in succession.

"He's had a wind operation over the summer which hopefully has helped," said Jonjo O'Neill, who is pleased by the stayers' work on the gallops.

The race named in Arthur Stephenson's honour has appropriately attracted a bunch of promising young chasers for the £10,000 two-and-a-half-miler.

Arthur would have liked nothing better than one of his fellow County Durham trainers, Howard Johnson, to collect first prize via the versatile Ellerslie George (1.50).

Seeing as Ellerslie George won at the course over three-and-aquarter miles last time out, rider Denis O'Regan is sure to take the bull by the horns for this much shorter trip.

A £40,000 event confined to mares is a rare bird, which is doubtless the reason for David Pipe's decision to dispatch Gapsara (4.05) from deepest Somerset.

The cider-country-based fouryear- old scooped a scrumptious £75,000 bonus by lifting both Sandown's Imperial Cup and the Fred Winter Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.

Like father like son, David has maintained the tradition of getting his horses fit-and-firing for this time of year, so in all probability we can expect a fully-tuned up Gapsara.

Ascot's insistence on running the United House Gold Cup on Charlie Hall day is plain stupid, but it typifies the sort of madness that also surrounded this week's failed Levy Board talks.

Two £90,000 three-mile chases contested within 90 minutes of each other hardly bears thinking about, however it's fact of life and my choice at Ascot is An Accordion (2.10).

Like Gapsara, An Accordion hails from the Pipe yard, who will have their fingers crossed that An Accordion pings the first couple of obstacles.

The huge, raw-boned gelding has a tendency to make the odd mistake, however such is his size and scope he can plough through a fence and still stay upright.

One of these days An Accordion is going to put in an error-free round, in which case the others might just as well stay at home, such is his massive potential.

David slaying Goliath occasionally comes off and Market Rasen minnow, Michael Chapman, has a fair chance of victory against the heavyweights with Orpen Wide (1.40).

A previous course-and-distance winner off a similar handicap rating, the gallant chestnut ran a remarkable race on the Flat when second at Leicester on Tuesday.

Undoubtedly a far better hurdler, Orpen Wide has got what it takes to humble jump racing's bigboys, Paul Nicholls, Philip Hobbs and Nicky Henderson.