The jumping season steps up a notch tomorrow when Wetherby, Yorkshire's premier National Hunt course, stages its first meeting of the campaign.

PASS TIME: An Acomb player fires the ball past a Boston Spa opponent.

With decent ground forecast, there is a good turnout of runners throughout the six-race programme, with the Marston Moor Handicap Hurdle attracting a particularly useful field.

Fitness is always at a premium at this early stage of the season and Panama House, who has been running on the Flat, certainly will not fail on that score in this competitive two-miler.

A winner on the level at Beverley this summer, Panama House had just two runs over hurdles last season, winning over this course and distance on his debut before finishing fourth at Newcastle.

Not at his best when the ground is testing, Panama House should find conditions to his liking tomorrow and he can provide trainer Tim Easterby and jockey Lorcan Wyer, who have such an outstanding Wetherby record, with an early strike. The Nap vote is awarded.

Cumbrian Challenge who has won a whole host of races on this course, represents Easterby and Wyer in the Glengoyne Highland Malt Handicap Chase, and is sure to give a good account of himself.

But I prefer Eirespray, another who excels on this course and who is set to make a winning comeback for Sue Smith.

The talented gelding completed a quick double at Wetherby and at Cheltenham last Christmas before fracturing a hip, but he has since made a full recovery.

Mixsterthetrixster is the Easterby representative in the Goldsborough Juvenile Novices' Hurdle which the stable won last year with Simply Gifted.

Mixsterthetrixster, a high-class two-year-old last season, has not progressed on the Flat and is largely his own worst enemy because of his highly-strung nature and headstrong antics.

He does, however, possess many of the right credentials to make the grade at the hurdling game and, although not one to recommend to serious punters on his debut tomorrow, deserves obvious respect all the same.

The promising Timmyjohn could prove the answer to the Hallfield Novices Hurdle (won last year by subsequent superstar Barton), while the Bobby Renton Novices' Handicap Chase is probably best left to the in-form Thornton House, a runaway winner at Perth on his last outing.

Trained near Glasgow by Jim Goldie, Thorntoun House will again have the services of Andrew Thornton.

Testing conditions are forecast at the Flat meeting at Haydock where the ground is described as 'heavy'.

Such conditions can turn the form-book upside down but Starry Night should not be inconvenienced having scored a 20-1 win on official soft ground on this course a couple of weeks ago.

John Dunlop's charge tackles the same distance of a mile and a quarter in the Selkirk Fillies' Handicap and an encore looks likely, though at reduced odds in the hands of Pat Eddery.

Also worthy of attention are the hat trick seeking More Magic (2.00) and Dark Trojan (4.30) who is overdue a win.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.