Races
Swinton Handicap Hurdle Review: Copperless atones for Grand National Festival mishap at Haydock
After his Grand National Festival heartbreak, Copperless made no mistake when bouncing back at Haydock
Olly Murphy’s Copperless put his fall at the Grand National Festival behind him as he landed Saturday’s Pertemps Network Swinton Handicap Hurdle with ease at Haydock Park.
The 9/2 favourite, who tipped up two flight’s out in the Pinsent Masons Handicap Hurdle at Aintree last month, made no mistake under Aidan Coleman to land the weekend feature to land another winning jumps NAP on our sister site, cheltenham.co.uk.
Brian Ellison’s Cormier plugged on for second, with the Phillip Hobbs trained Camprond in third ahead of National Festival successor, Rowland Ward.
Murphy told the Racing Post in the aftermath: “It was gutting what happened at Aintree and we’ve made amends here,”
“It was no fault of Lewis Stones when he came to grief at the second-last with the race at his mercy last time.
“I was very nervous about the ground, but it’s not as soft as you’d think and he handled it. I was cursing the handicapper for putting him up [3lb], but he’s been proved right.
“He’s on an upward curve and is going to contest nice races now. I’m not sure whether he’ll sneak into the Galway Hurdle, but it’s certainly an option, and the Greatwood is the obvious race.”
