Dun Belle is the one to concentrate on in a wide open contest for the £80,000-added Greenalls Grand National Trial at Haydock today. It is rare to find well handicapped Irish raiders but Dun Belle looks just that based on a fine performance in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup last time when belying odds of 50 to 1 to finish 15 lengths second of eight to leading Gold Cup fancy Dorans Pride.

It would be easy to assume that Dun Belle was flattered by the bare result - but the form has been boosted considerably by subsequent good wins for the third and fourth placed horses at Leopardstown, Anabatic and Go Ballistic.

Dun Belle is on an upward curve, having won four off the reel as a novice last season and trainer Pat Fahy, who landed the Greenalls with Nuaffe in 1995, appears to have targeted his nine-year-old at this.

Jibber The Kibber has good credentials in the £50,000added Racing Post Chase at Kempton. Jenny Pitman won this race last year with surprise packet Mudahim - but Jibber The Kibber is a horse with greater potential.

The nine-year-old won Chepstow's valuable Tote Silver Trophy Handicap Hurdle two seasons ago before embarking on a chasing career and took to fences, winning at Warwick and Leicester.

But he fell in races at the Cheltenham and Aintree festivals and missed last term. Unsurprisingly, he ran as if needing his reappearance run at Leicester but proved he was on the way back at Warwick when eight lengths second to With Impunity.

And he confirmed that in the Racing In Wessex Chase at Wincanton, recovering from a bad error early in the race to come through to beat Ground Nut convincingly by two and a half lengths.

There are a couple of question marks surrounding Jibber The Kibber - notably his tendency to make the odd error and being unproven over three miles. But he stayed on well over two miles five at Wincanton and appeals as a fairly handicapped, in-form horse in a contest that has attracted a rather mixed bunch.

Bumper races traditionally attract a few tilts at the ring and Baran Itsu is worth considering in the Kempton Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race. Trainer Karl Burke has been in unstoppable form on the all-weather and this Flat-bred gelding - out of a mare who won in France - should be well tuned up for this and ought to have more speed than most of these.