Henrietta Knight will be spoilt for choice tomorrow as she sends top-notch runners to different meetings to contest the two main televised races.

Best Mate heads to Ascot to contest the First National Gold Cup Chase, while Edredon Bleu returns to action at Huntingdon in the BBA Peterborough Chase, a race he has won for the last three years.

Best Mate, unbeaten in four starts over fences, is likely to go off at cramped odds to make it five. Very impressive when winning the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter on his reappearance, Best Mate has great class.

Edredon Bleu, who beat Fadalko by five lengths in last year's Peterborough Chase, will be at short odds to extend his remarkable sequence in this Grade 2 race.

Also worth noting at Huntingdon is Petuntse in the BBA Stallion Department Handicap Hurdle.

The Mary Reveley-trained gelding has won at Wetherby and Haydock on his last two starts and looks primed to complete a hat-trick for his owners, the unusually named Chicken Kiev Partnership, which is mostly employees of the Timeform organisation in Halifax.

Also worth attention is the promising Jean Guy in the BBA Shipping and Transport Handicap Chase.

Back at Ascot, Ballycassiddy has strong claims in the Sodexho Handicap Hurdle.

Alan King's prolific winner fell at the second-last flight when holding every chance at Aintree last time. He should be given the opportunity to gain deserved compensation.

Racing in Yorkshire tomorrow is at Catterick, where Barton Dante is napped to win division one of the Goathland Mares' Only Maiden Hurdle.

Mick Easterby's four-year-old, a bumper winner two outings ago, finished a promising third on her hurdling debut at Sedgefield. She can do better.

Mary Reveley looks set for a profitable afternoon, with Free in the Darlington Handicap Hurdle, and Glendari, who is expected to go well after a break in the modest-looking Moulton 'National Hunt' Novices' Handicap Hurdle.

Eponine should take all the beating in the novices' chase. The seven-year-old is already a winner this season and, in the hands of Seamus Durack, she can double her score.

Tomorrow's tips

Ascot

12.50 Bula Rose, 1.20 Celibate, 1.55 Ballycassidy, 2.30 Best Mate, 3.00 Returning, 3.35 Valerio.

Catterick

12.25 Top Quality, 12.55 Barton Dante (Nap), 1.30 Flaxen Pride, 2.05 Free, 2.35 Eponine, 3.05 Glendari, 3.35 Dame Hattie.

Huntingdon

(televised races)

2.20 Jean Guy, 2.50 Edredon Bleu, 3.25 Petuntse.

LINGFIELD

(televised races)

2.10 Border Arrow, 3.10 Invader, 3.40 Lord Pierce.

Updated: 12:34 Friday, November 23, 2001