NAP of the Day: Groom De Cotte ready for marathon at Stratford

A quartet of race meetings will take place across Britain and Ireland on Sunday, with jumps action at Down Royal, Tramore and Stratford followed by the Flat card at Musselburgh where they stage the first of the Sunday Series meetings for 2025.

Sunday's NAP of the Day looks well placed to bag another success for trainer Gary Brown as he steps up in trip at Stratford.

14:18 Stratford – Groom De Cotte @ 6/4

Trainer Gary Brown hasn't had GROOM DE COTTE at his base at Lodge Down Stables in Lambourne Woodlands for long, but the nine-year-old has now found a good vein of form.

His first four starts for this handler didn't see a lot of positives forthcoming, all of them over fences from June-September last year.

A switch to hurdles saw him turn a corner quickly, scoring at Fontwell (3m2f, good to soft) in late September under claiming rider Isabelle Ryder.

That was his first and, so far, only start beyond three miles and he travelled especially well before cruising clear to win.

The partnership came close to following up at the same track over 2m5½f (soft) in December but were just unable to peg back the frontrunner, All Under Control, on that occasion over the reduced trip, despite making good late inroads.

Groom De Cotte showed that his revival isn't confined to hurdles by scoring at Huntingdon (2m7½f, good to soft) over fences at the start of March on his return from a short absence.

He did so under Richie McLernon, moving well and coming clear with a next-time-out winner back in third spot.

He's got an 8lb higher mark to try and defy now but this looks a thin race. Getthepot and Martalmix'jac are in decent form but most of the remainder have questions over them.

Groom De Cotte remains unexposed as a stayer and that hurdles win at Fontwell in September is a strong pointer towards him seeing out this test.

On the pick of his hurdles form, this mark of 98 is manageable and given the way he has performed in those three most recent starts, in both disciplines, he's got excellent prospects of adding to his tally despite carrying top weight.

Click the links for the latest Horse Racing Odds and Today's Horse Races

Tune into Betfred Insights regularly to find our experts' Nap of the Day