Optimism springs eternal for the nation's clerks of course, and that quality will need to be available in buckets if Ffos Las is to beat the current cold spell and stage a Saturday card at the South Wales venue.

I doubt very much whether racing will go ahead at Ffos Las, and let's hope that the freezing weather is quickly on the wane by the beginning of next week because it would be real blow to racing if next weekend's potentially cracking cards at Newbury and Warwick are lost to the weather.

If by some miracle Ffos Las goes ahead on at the weekend then the feature race will be the Welsh Champion Hurdle at 2.45, but this contest is little more than a glorified racecourse gallop for Oscar Whisky, and the sheer lack of competition provided by the entries suggests that this is a race that will surely wither on the vine.

When Captain Chris started to lug alarmingly right in last weekend's Argento Chase, his dramatic lunge in running provided the final nail in the coffin for last season's novice chasers. Pulled up with more than a circuit to go, Captain Chris was reported after the race to be suffering a lack of confidence by his beleaguered trainer, Philip Hobbs.

The Minehead-based trainer has already seen Wishfull Thinking, yet another of last season's wretched bunch of novices, head progressively backwards with a series of baffling performances and the upshot of such a poor set of horses from last season has been a vacuum at the top-level in chasing resulting in little, if any, strength in depth at the top.

The Gold Cup looks a straight match between the veteran Kauto Star and the sloppy jumping Long Run and while neither can be backed with confidence for chasing's Blue Riband it is hard to find a serious alternative to the two market leaders.

Sifting for Cheltenham clues is the name of the game for February's jumps action, and Sandown sounds the starting horn for a month of competitive racing with a high-class card on February 4.

Traditionally the feature race on an informative afternoon has to be the Scilly Isles Novices' Chase and this grade one contest over 2m 3f has been won by some racing greats in seasons past and it goes without saying that the winner is always worth following.

Providing the ground does not get too chewed up at the Esher track, Champion Hurdle aspirant Binocular will be putting his Festival credentials on the line in Sandown's Champion Hurdle trial and it will be interesting to see whether a minor breathing operation has made an appreciable difference to the increasingly erratic performances of the one-time Champion Hurdler.

Cheltenham's festival trials day takes place without the week's biggest talking horse, Grand Crus, and his surprise absence from the Argento Chase at 2.35 has lessened this contest's usefulness as a guide to future Gold Cup plans.

Nine runners go to post for the Grade 2 contest and with ifs and buts about the principal players, this looks a race to watch rather than get involved with financially. Cheltenham's opener at 12.55 has attracted an even smaller and more select field of just six runners ready to put their Triumph Hurdle credentials on the line.

I think it is interesting that Alan King, a dab hand in past seasons with the juvenile brigade, has seen fit to let Grumeti take his chance here after an unfortunate tumble when waltzing way with a weaker race at Newbury the other day.

Trainer David Pipe looks to have taken the easy way out with Grand Crus, who had been the ante-post favourite for Saturday's Argento Chase until connections decided against running him in Saturday's big race at Cheltenham.

I can't see the point myself of talking about Grand Crus as a Gold Cup horse then dipping out on giving him a decent test against some smart horses in the Argento. Grand Crus can probably dot up in any novice chase he cares to run in between now and Cheltenham but that won't enhance his Gold Cup credentials one jot.

Running him in the Gold Cup looks like a non-starter for me when the exciting grey could win an RSA Chase, gain more chasing experience then take on the challenge of the Gold Cup in 2013 when Kauto Star will have retired and Long Run may be a waning force.

Finian's Rainbow made a winning start to his campaign when edging out Wishfull Thinking and Oiseau De Nuit in Kempton's Desert Orchid Chase over Christmas, and this deeply progressive 2m specialist is taken to follow-up that remarkable win by landing Saturday's feature race, the 2.20 Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot.

His trainer, Nicky Henderson, made a point of telling everyone that his charge would need the Kempton race to put him straight for Ascot, and after seeming to lose all chance with a bad blunder close home the nine-year-old produced a devastating turn of foot to sail by an almost stationary Wishfull Thinking and Oiseau De Nuit,

More enterprising tactics should be back on the agenda at Ascot and I expect to see Finian's Rainbow dominate this good prize from the front.