FOR THOSE making a last fling to Kelso Races before lambing and calving makes a proper start, will have a busy fixture list to take in.

The popular track also plays host to the ITV Racing team this Saturday, March 23, and one of the races they will present live will be the £50,000 Liz Adam Memorial Handicap Steeplechase.

The feature race of the day has already proved a useful stepping stone for emerging equine talent, such as Lake View Lad, which was third last year and is a leading fancy for next month's Grand National for Scottish trainer, Nick Alexander; while the 2015 winner, The Last Samuri, went on to finish runner-up in the following year's Aintree marathon.

While the likely top-weight is the Paul Nicholls-trained Adrien Du Pont, a winner at Kempton’s Christmas meeting, much of the interest will centre around dual Kelso winner, Blue Flight. Trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies and owned by Dundee United football club director, Jimmy Fyffe, the huge-framed novice chaser is progressing rapidly and looks like a star in the making.

The six-race programme gets underway at 1.50pm with the first race the £20,000 EBF/TBA mares novices steeplechase which has attracted 11 entries, including the five-time Kelso winner, Alizee De Janeiro and the classy southern raider, Dalila Du Seuil.

The £40,000 Bernhard Handicap Hurdle, over two miles, is the second race on the programme and there’ll be local support for the James Ewart-trained Aristo du Plessis, the Pauline Robson trained Martila and Sandy Thomson’s Saint Leo.

But the biggest entry on the card is the final race, the Ferguson Planning and Development handicap hurdle, which could divide if more than half of the entries declare to run. The race is well supported by Lucinda Russell, whose four entries include Ain't My Fault, Saint Freule, Sammy B and Touchedbyanangel.

The gates open at 12 noon.