There's a strong chance it could be a Grey day at Wetherby tomorrow - for the second successive year.

Grey Abbey, trained by Howard Johnson in County Durham and one of the most popular jumpers in training, returns to the 'A1 course' in a bid to repeat his memorable triumph of 12 months ago in the £75,000 bet365 Charlie Hall Chase.

A tough and genuine front-runner, Grey Abbey adopted his favourite tactics to telling effect in last year's race, which proved to be a stepping-stone to further glory as he went on to win the Pillar Chase at Cheltenham and the Betfair Bowl at Aintree.

Grey Abbey, who will be 12 on January 1, is fast approaching the veteran stage of his career but this evergreen performer showed no signs of his age earlier this year. On a recent visit to Newcastle he enjoyed a racecourse gallop as part of the preparation for tomorrow's challenge.

He will be thoroughly tested by the likes of Kingscliff, runner-up to Kicking King in last season's King George, and by Ollie Magern, who made giant strides last term. But Grey Abbey is a hard horse to beat and he is fancied to take plenty of catching under Graham Lee in this valuable Grade 2 contest.

On-line bookmakers Bet365 have announced that they are to sponsor the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby for a further three years. They first sponsored the race in 2003.

Johnson and Lee will also be strongly represented in the £40,000 John Smith's Hurdle by Inglis Drever, who was successful at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

His victory in the World Hurdle enabled this prolific scorer to become the inaugural winner of the Order Of Merit championship, based on overall performance throughout the season.

By virtue of that accolade, Inglis Drever is clearly one of Johnson's main hopes for the current campaign. He should prove a tough nut to crack over tomorrow's extended three miles.

In the Leeds Rugby Day Saturday 12th November Handicap Hurdle, Mister Arjay is fancied to score for Brian Ellison, the Norton trainer whose Melbourne Cup hope Carte Diamond suffered a serious injury in an accident when exercising in Australia this week and is out of the big race.

Saturday's tips:

Wetherby

1.45 Twist Magic, 2.20 Le Passing, 2.50 Inglis Drever, 3.25 Grey Abbey, 4.00 Circassian, 4.35 Jonny's Kick, 5.10 Mister Arjay.

Newmarket

12.55 Book Of Music, 1.30 Indian Ballet, 2.05 Genre, 2.35 Sindirana (Nap), 3.10 Polar Ben, 3.45 Rohaani, 4.20 Dodgem, 4.55 Game Lad.

Tomorrow's other meetings are at Ayr (Flat, inspection this afternoon), Lingfield (National Hunt), Southwell (Flat, all-weather track) and Wolverhampton (Flat, evening, all weather track).

Updated: 13:17 Friday, October 28, 2005