One man will face a small but select field when he bids to atone for last year's shock defeat in the Comet And Sony Chase at Ascot next Wednesday.
The dual King George VI Chase winner, beaten into second place at 4 to 7 in the Grade One event 12 months ago, was among just five acceptors for the £60,000-added event yesterday.
The only others declared for the 19 1/2 -furlong event - from an original entry of 19 - were last year's winner Strong Promise, Jeffell, Merry Gale and Senor El Betrutti.
One Man finished a well-beaten fifth when bidding for a King George hat-trick at Kempton on St Stephen's Day. But trainer Gordon Richards said yesterday: "He's all right now and will run provided everything goes right. We gave him a little bit of a break after Kempton and didn't do much with him in early January. He has responded well and I hope he can win - we don't want to be second again!"
Geoff Hubbard's Strong Promise will be having his first outing since an impressive victory in the Silver Trophy Chase at Cheltenham last April.
Senor El Betrutti was pulled up in the King George but had previously won the Murphy's Gold Cup and Tripleprint Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
Arthur Moore has declared Jeffell, winner of last month's Victor Chandler Handicap Chase at Ascot. But fellow Irish challenger Merry Gale is due to run in tomorrow's Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Leopardstown.
Dean Gallagher becomes the second of the arrested jockeys to return to race-riding when the Irishman partners Claudia Electric in the February Novices' Hurdle at Sandown today.
It will be his first mount since the ending of a temporary suspension imposed on him, Jamie Osborne and Leighton Aspell after their arrest by police investigating doping and race-fixing.
Jack Ramsden told the British High Court yesterday that the Sporting Life newspaper's allegation of cheating against him and his wife Lynda was "totally and utterly unacceptable".
Ramsden said he was absolutely appalled by the May 1995 report.
"The further I got down the article the worse it got. We've taken criticism in the past but this was totally over the top. I was horrified more than anything else for my wife," he said.
