Count on Monte Cristo.

Byline: By Keith Hamer

Owner-trainer Lavinia Taylor may be without her stable star Gingembre but her small team are performing well and her Monte Cristo can complete a hat-trick at Kempton Park tomorrow.

The six-year-old has already contributed three of the Upper Lambourn handler's eight successes this season and he can carry on the good work in the Betfair.com Chase.

Monte Cristo opened his account at Stratford in October with a game win over Prominent Profile.

After being out of luck in his next starts, he returned to form with a two-length verdict over Ivanoph back at Stratford in December and wore down Jahash to score by half a length at Fakenham last month.

He has yet to win at a distance as far as this two miles, four and a half furlongs but Kempton is quite an easy track.

It is worth giving Monte Cristo the benefit of the doubt as he is on the upgrade and the prevailing good ground will be in his favour.

Bramlynn Brook was an expensive failure at Sedgefield on his latest start but can recoup losses in the Betfair.com Novices' Hurdle.

A five-length defeat at the hands of 20-1 outsider Why The Long Face left supporters of the 8-15 shot with long faces of their own. Venetia Williams' charge had attempted to make all the running over the two miles, five and a half furlongs but had no answer to the winner's run from the second-last.

Ridden with more restraint, Bramlynn Brook can get back on track over this extended three miles. He had looked a decent stayer in the making with wins at Towcester and Fontwell at the end of last year.

Sir Talbot's last win had been in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham in March 1999 before he ended almost five fruitless years when opening his chasing account at Leicester last month.

The 10-year-old showed that he was finally over the injury problems that had plagued his career when beating Old Marsh by a head. He had shown promise on his chasing bow over the same course just two weeks earlier when running Keltic Bard to two lengths.

Channahrlie's four-race winning sequence was halted when Desailly proved seven lengths too good at Newbury in December, but Robin Dickin's grey can return to winning ways in the French Street Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Chase.

Polar Kingdom ended 33 months without success when landing his first all-weather success at Southwell and can continue to make up for lost time by winning the Littlewoods Bet Direct Handicap at Wolverhampton.