Nap of the Day: Owen’s best bet on Boxing Day is…

There's over 700 horses running in 77 races across 11 meetings on Boxing Day, and I've been tasked with selecting a Nap of the Day. No pressure...

After several hours of studying, I finally landed on one that takes us to North Yorkshire.

Regular readers will be well aware of how much I rate conditional jockey Callum Pritchard.

The 23-year-old, who ditched rugby to embark on a riding career fairly recently, seems to have made a name for himself almost overnight.

His strike rate is quite impressive given his inexperience. It's 13 per cent this season, courtesy of 14 winners from 106 rides, and when you focus specifically on races over fences it's 21 per cent (seven from 33).

Callum's presence aboard Richard Hobson's SOME SCOPE in the Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase at Wetherby is therefore a huge positive.

His invaluable seven-pound claim means his mount, who's rated just 124, runs off an even lighter weight - 9st 9lbs to be precise. He'll be in receipt of over a stone and a half from market leader Cruz Control and second-favourite Tahmuras.

It's not just his feather weight that appeals. The six-year-old son of Telescope appears to have been primed for a race like this after a disappointing seasonal reappearance at Cheltenham in October.

He jumped terribly at HQ and was pulled-up before the second-last, but connections are on record saying they found a reason for his underperformance which has since been straightened out.

Presumably it was a breathing issue, for he had wind surgery just three days later before reappearing at Newcastle the following month for the Rehearsal Handicap Chase.

The selection was relatively unfancied in the betting that day and ridden way off the pace, but he plugged on encouragingly into fourth, 18 lengths adrift of the winner.

Given prior problems, that was a respectable effort in a hot race and he ought to come on leaps and bounds for it - and a more prominent ride.

The handicapper dropped Some Scope a pound for his exploits in the North East and as already explained Pritchard takes off a further seven, so in theory he's running off 117 here. Considering he was very competitive in similar races off 125 and 127 last season, he looks rather well-handicapped if back to something like.

Track, trip and ground suit too, and I think this is an outstanding bet at the quoted price.

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

Tune into Betfred Insights regularly to find my Nap of the Day