Impala was no great shakes on the level nor will he be among the star attractions at the Cheltenham Festival, but he does at least seem to be adapting to the hurdling game and can take a poor contest for the Bradford Selling Handicap Hurdle at Catterick today.

Dropped to selling company after two disappointing runs in better grade contests, Bill Turner's charge showed up much better last time when a half-length second to Zahaalie at Bangor and would probably have gone even closer but for some sloppy jumping.

Stable conditional jockey John Power takes a further 7lb off his feather-weight and provided that the four-year-old can turn in a performance of a similar standard, Impala looks nicely weighted.

This is not the first time that trainer Turner has reaped the dividends of a long northward journey and his veteran Rusty Reel can also be fancied to land the opening Leeds Handicap Hurdle.

Rain-saturated surfaces often sort the men from the boys in equine terms and Sillars Stalker can reward the patience of connections by landing the Wakefield Novices' Chase at Catterick.

A progressive and useful handicap hurdler four seasons ago, the 10-year-old has slowly been nursed back to health having suffered form recurring bouts of lameness in recent years.

Now with Ann Swinbank, Sillars Stalker is getting toward the veteran stage of his career but showed enough a fortnight ago when fourth at Sedgefield behind Chipped Out to suggest that he retains plenty of ability.

That was his first outing for 678 days and unsurprisingly he seemed to blow up when clobbering the third-last and was left to come home in his own time.

On a strict reading of the form, Callernoy, runner-up that day, should be expected to confirm placings on identical terms. But Sillars Stalker has more potential to improve with that outing under his belt and can go very close at a decent price.

Ham N'Eggs seemed to go through the testing ground at Wetherby last time out well enough when spread-eagling a small field and can go in again in the Barnsley Novices' Handicap Chase.

That success may have been an important confidence-booster and the six-year-old looks on a fair mark, given his fair degree of ability over the smaller obstacles.

Lingfield stages today's only other action, thanks to the abandonment of racing at Market Rasen. And Sada, formerly trained by Dick Hern, can defy top-weight in the Waverley Handicap for the trainer-jockey combination of Chris Dwyer and Seb Sanders, who got off the mark for the year with English Invader at the Surrey course on Tuesday.