Nicholls calls on Geraghty for Baloo

Barry Geraghty has come in for the plum ride on Paul Nicholls' exciting novice chaser Hoo La Baloo in tomorrow's Victor Chandler Handicap Chase.

The five-year-old was not among the original entries for the race, but with the race being switched to Sandown he will now carry Nicholls' hopes rather than one-time favourite Albuhera.

Hoo La Baloo, who attracted tremendous support for the weekend's race yesterday, showed a liking for the track when he won the Wayward Lad Novices' Chase on St Stephen's Day when ridden by Mick Fitzgerald, but this time another Irishman will be on board.

With Nicholls' regular big-race rider Ruby Walsh recovering from injury, he has called on the services of 26-year-old Geraghty as his number two Christian Williams will be riding at Wetherby.

"I have asked Barry Geraghty to come over and ride some of mine at Sandown on Saturday," Nicholls said. "That means he will have the ride on Hoo La Baloo among others. Christian Williams will be going up north to Wetherby to ride Neptune Collonges in the Brit Insurance Novice Hurdle."

Officials at Sandown are "very hopeful" of tomorrow's meeting beating the weather. The card also includes the Grade One totesport.com Scilly Isles Novices Chase and the Grade Two

With the recent cold snap claiming numerous jumps meetings in the past fortnight, connections are running out of time to get prep runs into their horses in time for Cheltenham, but Andrew Cooper, clerk of the course at Sandown, had some good news.

"I don't think we are going to be entirely clear until we get to Saturday morning," he said, "but my personal view is that it should be fine.

"It is clearly very cold at the moment. We've dipped down to just below freezing last night and today we are not much higher than zero. We would have raced without a shadow of a doubt today, though."

Meanwhile, See You Sometime posted one of the big-race shocks of the season so far with an 18 to 1 success in the Grade Two HBLB Cotswold Chase at Wincanton yesterday.

In a contest which shed no light on the Cheltenham Gold Cup picture, the Seamus Mullins-trained gelding got the better of a protracted duel with 6 to 4 joint-favourite Royal Auclair after One Knight, the other market leader, had unshipped Richard Johnson at the second. Ollie Magern was left in front at that point only to weaken right out of contention as See You Sometime and Royal Auclair had a private battle for most of the final circuit.

Christian Williams sent Royal Auclair to the front nine fences out, but surrendered it when his mount was awkward at the cross fence four from home. All the way up the straight See You Sometime and Andrew Thornton were going the better, eventually scoring by a length and a quarter, with Ballycassidy and Ollie Magern beaten a distance.

It was no surprise that William Hill kept Royal Auclair unchanged at 33 to 1 for the Gold Cup, while leaving One Knight on 16 to 1 and pushing Ollie Magern out from 10s to 20s.

Paul Nicholls, who created history at the last Wincanton meeting when he saddled six winners, carried on from where he left off when Gungadu hacked up in the HMG Paints "National Hunt" Novices' Hurdle.

The 1 to 5 favourite dominated the contest under Christian Williams and although Liberty Ben got to within a couple of lengths of him halfway down the back, he was soon clear again as that rival weakened and came home by 17 lengths and seven from Hill Forts Timmy and Malaga Boy.

William Hill kept Gungadu at 20 to 1 for the Royal and SunAlliance Hurdle but it is far from certain the winner will run in that.

Nicholls said: "The obvious race for him is the three-mile novice hurdle (Brit Insurance), but I have other possibles for it and there are no firm plans at the moment. He's just getting more experience and will make up into a nice staying chaser next year."

Officials at Fontwell are "pretty hopeful" of today's meeting taking place despite calling a precautionary inspection for 8am. Clerk of the course Geoff Stickels said: "Last night it dropped to minus one, but there is no frost in the ground at the moment." However, the meeting scheduled for Catterick has been abandoned due to a frozen track.