TURBO (2.20) probably only has to stand up to open his account over hurdles at Worcester this afternoon.

The Terry Mills-trained one-time useful Flat performer has now turned his attention to the National Hunt arena, where plenty of success awaits judged on a recent visit to Plumpton, when gut-wrenchingly denied the spoils by a short-head.

Such an unlucky scenario doesn't remotely appear as if it's going to be repeated in the Andymoss Maiden Hurdle, an event there to be cherry-picked provided Turbo clears the eight scheduled obstacles with reasonable proficiency.

Jumping is, of course, the name of the game, as Audiostreetdotcom (2.50) and partner found out to their cost when ignominiously hitting the deck three hurdles from home last time out at Huntingdon.

It was a great pity for young amateur jockey Joshua Harris, since I'm firmly of the opinion that the combination would have won, so well were they cruising along at the time.

Mind you, no blame can be attached to either horse or rider seeing as the saddle slipped, making life just about impossible as far as keeping the partnership intact was concerned.

Let's hope the girth strap is a touch tighter in the Betting Forum Selling Handicap Hurdle, a contest well within the selection's remit considering his current rude state of health.

A potentially big-priced winner for those backers prepared to take a pot-shot from the halfway line is House Warmer (3.20) in the Novices' Handicap Chase.

House Warmer's hardly had any racing at all over the past couple of seasons, almost certainly due to injury problems. But even given the six-year-old's fragile state of fitness, connections would not have persevered with him unless they thought he was a going concern.

As far as solid form goes, there wasn't too much wrong with a third placing behind the classy Garryvoe on his Leicester reappearance in 2004, a promising return in which he jumped adequately until tiring in the home straight on predominantly sticky ground.

The kickback at Southwell has been pretty dreadful of late, consequently a low draw, plus a fast start on the six-furlong course, can often combine to create a massive advantage.

Making full use of the above criteria, Miss Porcia (4.10) must enter calculations for the Natwest Banded Stakes. She generally gets out of the gates will bags of zest, ran an excellent race when fifth on a return from a break at Yarmouth 22 days ago, and has a fantastic stall position, emerging from berth number three.

At the other end of the distance spectrum, Keltic Rainbow (4.40) takes on some pretty modest rivals for the mile-and-three-quarter finale.

Keltic Rainbow is far better suited by the fibre-sand than turf, a point proven by her fair record at the track, compared with a woeful effort on grass at Chepstow in August.

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