NAP of the Day: Tyre Kicker to leave rivals spinning

There's plenty of racing to enjoy across Britain and Ireland on Sunday, with jumps fare dominating at Leopardstown, Huntingdon and Doncaster.

The feature race at Leopardstown is a handicap chase over 2m6f worth €27,000 to the winner and a field of 13 are set to engage.

Gavin Cromwell's team are in fine order and Windsor eye-catcher Tyre Kicker could be the answer here for our NAP of the Day.

16:02 Leopardstown – Tyre Kicker @ 4/1

An interesting Listed contest at Leopardstown as they begin their two-day jumps finale meeting.

Willie Mullins saddles four, including the top-three on the racecard. James Du Berlais is the top-weight but has never quite fulfilled his potential, while Paul Townend sides with Adamantly Chosen.

Splitting them is Meetingofthewaters, who was backed as if defeat was out of the question here last month at the Dublin Racing Festival when attempting to exploit a hurdles mark some 36lb lower than his current chase rating.

That ended with punters getting their fingers burned and it's hard to side with the eight-year-old now back over the larger obstacles.

Gordon Elliott and Henry De Bromhead also have contenders here but the one that makes appeal is TYRE KICKER for Gavin Cromwell.

The eight-year-old Network gelding is officially 1lb out of the handicap here, although that is offset by Conor Stone-Walsh claiming 3lb in the saddle.

He's a veteran of only eight starts over fences and he won the first three of those in early 2023, showing versatility in doing so.

Successes at Tramore (2m6f, heavy) and Fairyhouse (3m1½f) preceded a win over 2m1f at this track in a novice chase (yielding).

After one more spin around Tramore, he went on to miss 560 days before reappearing at Galway (2m6½f, soft) in October where he did very well to be denied less than a length off a mark of 119.

After such a lengthy absence, it was perhaps no great surprise that he didn't immediately build on that comeback run, with the ultra-competitive Troytown at Navan his next stop.

He started 2025 in promising fashion, however, finishing second behind Hasthing at Windsor over 2m6f during their Berkshire Winter Million Festival in January.

They had a couple of next-time-out winners behind and Jonjo O'Neill's charge has since run well in the Swinley Handicap Chase at Ascot from an 8lb higher mark.

Tyre Kicker has had six weeks to get over that run and if he can show a similar level of form now, he looks to have a fine chance carrying just 10st in this Listed event.

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