A hybrid between Newbury and Chepstow? Keith Melrose analyses Ffos Las's chase course to help you make sense of the Towton

This year's Towton Novices' Chase will be the biggest race ever run on the chase course at Ffos Las. While the track's strongest association is with deep ground, that may not be the overriding factor this time. The going was described as soft on Friday with a largely dry forecast. Conditions are unlikely to be exceptional for mid-January.

Thoughts can thus focus on the track's characteristics, which are under-analysed. When Ffos Las opened in 2009, Mick Fitzgerald said it reminded him of Newbury. With hindsight, that assessment is accurate on some scores and lacks in others. It is a useful place to start in either case.

Ffos Las, like Newbury, has four fences up the straight with the second of them being a ditch. The sense is that Newbury's fences are stiffer, although that is hard to quantify with so few good horses having raced in chases at Ffos Las.