Foley, who will aim Danoli at a return for the Gold Cup, warned his gelding is a long way from peak fitness after 580 days off course. Tom Foley's bay, now 10, faces the two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup third Dorans Pride in a field of six for the feature over two and a half miles.Danoli, who fractured an off-fore fetlock when successful in the 1995 Martell Aintree Hurdle, missed last season after an operation to remove pins from the leg. "Our core period of 1 October to 1 May must remain sacrosanct and we are to review how best to formulate National Hunt racing in that period. Our two main Festivals are reliant on racing in that period." Meanwhile, Danoli, Ireland's favourite racehorse, makes his long-awaited comeback in the Kilkenny Irish Beer Champion Chase at Gowran Park today.

The demise of jumps racing at Windsor and Lingfield, together with a national newspaper story that jump racing may have to close down in January and early February, have caused alarm, said Toby Balding, chairman of the National Hunt sub- committee of the NTF. A CAMPAIGN against any plans to scale down the winter jumps fixture list was launched by National Hunt trainers meeting in Lambourn yesterday. Leading members of the National Trainer's Federation gave their representatives full backing in the fight to retain jumping's share of racing. Only two Middle Park Stakes winners this century have followed up in the Dewhurst, Diesis in 1982 and Bayardo in 1908.. I reckon that 40-1 is pretty good value.''Stravinsky, runner-up to Aljabr in the Salamandre on soft going and then disqualified because of his novicey sideways dive across some of his rivals under pressure, was yesterday confirmed as Aidan O'Brien's sole Dewhurst challenger after pleasing in his morning workout.The other Ballydoyle entry, Orpen, is likely to tackle next month's Breeders Cup Juvenile in Kentucky ``Stravinsky worked very well. It was just a good pipe-opener but I am very pleased," O'Brien said.The Irish colt, whose trainer is another hoping the rain stays away from Suffolk, is jostling with the Henry Cecil-trained Enrique at the head of the early lists for the race that often produces the winter 2,000 Guineas favourite and sometimes - in the cases of Zafonic and Pennekamp recently - the winner.The third market choice Lujain, whose owner Sheikh Mohammed tried to recruit Enrique from the Niarchos family to his Godolphin squad earlier in the year, must buck an historical trend to succeed.

I consider myself lucky.''The only caveat over Raise A Grand's participation on Saturday is the ground. The colt, the mount of Gary Carter, will run only if it remains as it currently is, good. ``He's won a Group Three very nicely and he's a healthy, fresh horse that's a real professional. And he's got racing experience on his side, he knows how to compete. It's all too easy to fill a yard up with lots of bad horses and owners who don't pay. Not so many years ago three generations of the family could be seen riding out together on Newmarket Heath: Bill, Pip and Pip's eldest son, James.Payne has just 10 horses under his care at present but said: ``That's enough when they're nice ones with good owners. His great- grandfather Bill Payne was champion jump jockey in 1911 and trained the 1927 Champion Hurdler Blaris and the 1953 Coronation Cup winner Zucchero.