NAP of the Day: Copperhead to continue in fine fettle

There's plenty of racing action across the UK and Ireland on Sunday, with four meetings taking place and National Hunt racing holding sway.

They go jumping at Aintree, Galway, Wexford and Wincanton, with 29 races down for decision across the afternoon.

Our NAP is enjoying an Indian summer for trainer Joe Tizzard and can bag the Vieux Lion Rouge Veterans' Handicap Chase on the opening afternoon of the new season at Aintree.

It is probably fair to suggest that COPPERHEAD didn't quite fulfil the early potential of his chasing career.

He won three times on the spin in late 2019/early 2020, culminating in a 17-length romp in the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Novices' Chase at Ascot over just shy of three miles a month or so before Covid-19 changed the world.

Copperhead had already endured his own setback before lockdown arrived, falling at Cheltenham in the Grade 1 three-mile novices' chase that is now the Brown Advisory when he was held in a race won in stunning fashion by Champ.

Rated in the mid-150s, Copperhead was forced to try his luck in races like Newbury's Ladbrokes Trophy in successive seasons - his only two starts over fences from March 2020 until November 2022, where he unseated his rider at Ascot.

By May 2023 he was rated as low as 119 and finished second at Ludlow in a low-grade handicap in what was to be the first outing for a now enduring partnership with Freddie Gingell in the saddle.

They had some near misses last season at Fontwell, Wincanton and Sandown before things finally clicked at Plumpton (3m1½f, good) in May, taking advantage of a career-low chase mark of 114 to beat three rivals.

After the summer recess, raised only 3lb, Copperhead and Gingell scored again at Chepstow earlier this month in a Class 2 Veterans' Handicap Chase over nearly three miles, doing so with a good deal in hand having left nine rivals toiling.

He's back up to a mark of 122 now, but this 10-year-old is clearly showing all the appetite remains and the veterans' arena permits him every opportunity to thrive at this stage in his career.

He's got a strong chance of recording a hat-trick over fences for the second time in his life.

Click the link for all the latest Horse Racing Odds

Find more Horse Racing Tips here at Betfred Insights