Roman Ark, the apple of Norton trainer Malcolm Jefferson's eye, can hit the jackpot at Newbury tomorrow - before heading for next month's Cheltenham Festival.

The classy seven-year-old lines-up for the £125,000 totesport Trophy Hurdle and is napped to extend his winning run to four in the hands of regular jockey, Fergus King.

Roman Ark, the best horse Jefferson has trained since Dato Star a few years ago, got off the mark this season at Carlisle and has since added two useful Haydock prizes to his scoresheet.

All of his wins have been gained on pretty testing ground and underfoot conditions are likely to livelier tomorrow.

But Jefferson remains unperturbed and is keen to exploit Roman Ark's handicap mark, which allows him to enter this hugely-valuable race off a lowly weight of just 10st 4lb, which includes a 4lb penalty for his latest success.

Next month's Royal And SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle is pencilled-in to Roman Ark's future programme. Victory tomorrow could set him up nicely for that prestigious target and relive happy memories for Jefferson, who sent out Dato Star to win at the Festival meeting.

Of what will be good jumping ground tomorrow, Jefferson said: "It might not make any difference to him.

"They'll go a good pace but he's a horse who has shown plenty of speed when he's run on the other ground. He's a great jumper and he's in great fettle."

The totepool Game Spirit Chase promises to be a fascinating battle between Azertyuiop, last year's winner, and Well Chief, with slight preference for the latter.

Well Chief finished only a short-head behind Azertyuiop when the pair chased home Moscow Flyer in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown, and is now set to receive 4lb from his rival.

Well Chief, trained by Martin Pipe, bounced back from a fall at Wetherby over Christmas to produce a stirring victory under top-weight in the Victor Chandler Chase last month, while Azertyuiop comes here after finishing third to Kicking King in the King George V1 Chase at Kempton.

Whatever his fate with Azertyuiop, trainer Paul Nicholls will be hoping to see Strong Flow win the £50,000 Aon Chase.

One of last season's leading novices' before falling foul of injury, Strong Flow returned to action in a hurdle race at Warwick last month and shaped pretty well to finish third. Now back over fences, he will need to win this Grade 2 race convincingly if he is to fulfil his trainer's aim of running him in next month's Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Saturday's tips:

Newbury

1-20 Distant Thunder, 1-50 Arcalis, 2-25 Strong Flow, 3-00 Roman Ark (NAP), 3-35 Well Chief, 4-10 He's The Guv'nor, 4-40 Greenhill Bramble

Warwick

1-40 Has Scored, 2-10 My Will, 2-45 Reveillez, 3-20 Mythical King, 3-55 Noisetine, 4-30 Sigwells Club Boy

Tomorrow's other meetings are at Ayr, Lingfield and Wolverhampton.

Updated: 10:25 Friday, February 11, 2005