Flagship on course for Sandown

Flagship Uberalles will attempt to bounce back from his Aintree slog last Friday and lay claim to the title of the season's top two-mile chaser when tackling the best of his peers in Sandown's ladbrokescasino.com Championship Chase a fortnight on Saturday.

Trainer Noel Chance's charge was last seen when faltering in the closing stages of the 2m4f Martell Melling Chase, conceding third in the dying strides to old rival Direct Route, in very testing conditions.

The Aintree winner, Fadalko, may bypass Sandown's two-mile event - a replacement for the abandoned Cheltenham Festival's Queen Mother Champion Chase - if the ground is good, in favour of taking on Martell Cup hero First Gold in the Esher track's Gold Cup equivalent, the Tote Gold Trophy Chase.

But Chance is relishing the prospect of a return to the course and distance over which Flagship Uberalles beat Direct Route by a neck to take the 1999 Tingle Creek Trophy, when trained by Paul Nicholls. The horse also won the same event for Chance this season, beating Fadalko by an emphatic 11 lengths, when it was rescheduled to Cheltenham last December.

"Sandown suits him," said Chance. "He's come out of Aintree okay, with only the slight discomforts you get from the bustle of a race. All being well, he certainly heads to this Championship Chase. I was worried about the ground at Aintree the morning of the race and then there was even more rain. But it didn't help that he made a mistake in the race just as they quickened up."

Chance identified last year's Queen Mother Champion Chase hero Edredon Bleu - a Melling Chase withdrawal due to unsuitably testing ground - and his narrow victim at last year's Cheltenham Festival, Direct Route, as the main dangers to his charge.