THE top officials within racing should be congratulated for the work they are doing to salvage good races at meetings that have been lost to the weather.

When the New Year's Day fixture at Cheltenham was abandoned, the Dipper Novices' Chase was switched to Sandown tomorrow afternoon.

And certainly the move has paid off for racing fans as Captain Conan and Unioniste head a high-class list of entries. Nicky Henderson's Captain Conan is unbeaten in two starts over fences and has experienced the challenging Sandown circuit having landed the Henry VIII Novices' Chase at the track a month ago.

The five-year-old Unioniste, trained by Paul Nicholls, brings top handicap form to the table having won off a light weight in the Paul Stewart IronSpine Charity Challenge Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

Henderson and Nicholls both have apparent second strings in Minella Class and There's No Panic respectively.

Elsewhere, Farmleigh House gets his first taste of racing in the UK when he lines up in the lingfieldpark.co.uk Handicap at the Surrey venue.

Trained by Willie Martin in Ireland, Farmleigh House arrives in search of a third win on the bounce after successes on the Polytrack at Dundalk in November and last month.

The six-year-old defied an 8lb hike in the ratings on the latter occasion when he accounted for Knock Stars by a length and a half over six furlongs.

Given the ease of that success and his previous victory over Elusive Ridge, he is evidently quite smart and probably better than those handicaps suggest.

Farmleigh House appears to face stronger company this time and while a further 8lb rise is far from ideal, he looks an improved horse at the top of his game.