WHEN steering clear of injury Richard Johnson is arguably second only to Tony McCoy in the National Hunt jockeyship stakes.

A broken leg robbed Richard of countless winners during September and October, but he has now fully recovered and is again riding like a man possessed. With so much natural talent he is in constant demand and one of the trainers to provide Johnson with plenty of serious ammunition over the past couple of seasons has been Henry Daly.

This afternoon Daly has booked him to partner Lord Moose (2.45) in the most valuable race of the day, the £12,000 Powerslave Charity Chase at Newbury.

Most observers agree that the combination were a trifle unlucky not to collect over course and distance last time out, when they were badly hampered at the fourth fence from home.

Johnson had Lord Moose perfectly poised on the heels of the leaders, only for the two horses in front, Fin Bec and Coastguard, to be involved in a spectacular mid-air collision.

In the resulting melee Fin Bec was knocked sideways and out of contention, Coastguard had an argument with the turf, and Lord Moose, who had to swerve to avoid the trouble, was stopped to a virtual walk.

Having been brought to a near standstill, Johnson did well to re-galvanise Lord Moose into action and finish in third spot. To my way of thinking he's now a winner without a penalty and provided no similar mishaps occur, compensation awaits for the normally consistent eight-year-old.

The big race at Bangor, the three-mile-six-furlong Wynnstay Room Handicap Chase, presents the dour stayer Hanover Square (2.05) with an ideal opportunity to get on the scoresheet.

With a brace of Grand National winners already under his belt, Nigel Twiston-Davies is rightly regarded as one of our leading protagonists in this type of mud-slogging marathon.

Hanover Square showed he needed every inch of the trip when third over three furlongs less at Taunton last month. And since the trained gelding was not stopping at the end of that contest, it's fair to assume he and the admirably hard-working Jamie Goldstien will have the legs of their opponents when the winning post comes into view.

Jonjo O'Neill, who has a monster £4,200 hole in his pocket after being hit by two hefty non-trier fines at the weekend, has a chance to claw back a few quid via Old Feathers (1.30) in the Althrey Hall Handicap Hurdle.

Old Feathers had been strutting his stuff in sunny Spain prior to making a triumphant return to these shores at Uttoxeter late last month, and the form of the race is already working out nicely because the second home, Wontcostalotbut, bolted up at Fontwell recently.

Down at Lingfield Bill Turner's Dusty Dazzler (2.25) makes stacks of appeal in the five-furlong Bet Direct Nursery.

Turner, who went five months without a winner until Ede'iff obliged at Ludlow last week, has always reckoned Dusty Dazzler to be the best two-year-old he has ever trained. While the filly hasn't quite progressed as well as he would have liked after romping home at Thirsk in May, she might still have the requisite pace to burn off her nine rivals in the £7,000 contest.

l Martin Pipe will leave his Ladbroke Hurdle running plans as late as possible, the champion trainer said yesterday.

He has five entries in the £100,000 contest at Ascot on Saturday. They are Polar Red (11st 12lb), Puntal (11st 11lb), Mr Cool (11st 9lb), Bernardon (10st 9lb) and Idaho d'Ox (10st 3lb)

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