Kelso test for Washington Irving

ONE-time Derby aspirant Washington Irving takes the next step along the road to forging a new career for himself in the totepool Premier Kelso Hurdle today.

The five-year-old finished fifth behind New Approach at Epsom in 2008 and sixth behind Conduit in the St Leger, but was bought by Scots owner Graham Wylie and wife Andrea for 300,000 guineas after an aborted attempt on the Ascot Gold Cup the following year. He impressed on his first start over timber for Howard Johnson but gave the useful Bygones Of Brid too much rope on his last start at Newcastle.

Johnson has not lost faith in the Montjeu gelding but believes he would appreciate better ground than he will get at the Borders venue this afternoon. "He'll go up to Kelso and hopefully he'll have a good chance," said the County Durham handler. "He needed the run at Newcastle last time and the winner got first run on him as well, you can't give a lot of ground away in really bad ground."

James Ewart expects Sa Suffit to book his ticket for Aintree in the supporting totesport.com Premier Chase. The seven-year-old was a very impressive winner of a decent handicap at Wetherby on his last start and had been quietly fancied for the William Hill Handicap at the Cheltenham Festival. However, Ewart's stable star will miss the jamboree this year, with the John Smith's Handicap Chase on Grand National day the big target instead.

"His Cheltenham this year will be at Aintree," said Ewart. "We are using this as a stepping stone to the John Smith's, the three-mile handicap on National day.

"He is only seven and that will probably be it for this season. He's only had 12 races in his life.

"The trip is ideal at Kelso (two miles and six furlongs) and it comes at just the right time, 33 days before Aintree.

"He is not the greatest traveller and we got our fingers burned when we took him down to Cheltenham in December."

The Kelso meeting will also see Lucinda Russell presented with the title of Scotland's 2009 champion jumps trainer, while Jim Goldie will be presented with Flat racing award.

&149 The totescoop6 has rolled over for two consecutive weeks which means that a single winner of this weekend's bet could land up to 400,000.

TODAY'S Scoop6 Races

Leg 1: 2.20 Doncaster; Leg 2: 2.35 Newbury

Leg 3: 2.50 Kempton; Leg 4: 3.10 Newbury

Leg 5: 3.25 Doncaster; Leg 6: 3.45 Newbury