ITV Racing Tips: A Couple Of Selections For Saturday

Saturday's ITV Racing action is set to take place from Sandown and Wincanton, although the cold spell could cause abandonments if it really bites overnight. Billy Grimshaw scored with Lucky Place on New Year's Day in the Relkeel has got two more bets worth your consideration here...

15:00 Sandown - Unibet Veterans' Handicap Chase

One of the real successes of recent season's race planning from the BHA has been the introduction and popularity of this Veteran's Series, and it will be great to see a load of these old stagers going round again in this sphere at Sandown. It's not often I'm as bullish about a pick in this type of race as I am about COPPERHEAD for this contest, as often in veterans races it is tough to know just how much of the old fire still burns and which horse has got out the wrong side of the stable that morning, however this lad is a spring chicken in comparison to a lot of these and seems revitalised.

The world was thought of him as a novice hurdler and hopes were high for a successful career as a chaser, however the wheels came off somewhat in the latter years of Colin Tizzard's training career and the horse looked gone at the game. All credit must go to Joe and the team for rejuvenating this lad as on his last few starts he has looked almost as good as ever, with both of his last two resulting in close seconds and his two runs prior to that resulting in victory. One of those second places was over course and distance and a repeat of that one suspects would be enough for glory here. Freddie Gingell's 3lb claim will be of massive assistance as he has gone up the weights a touch, but in the form he's showing I can't see anything in here that should trouble him too much.

The main danger may well be the old stager Sam Brown for Anthony Honeyball with a featherweight on his back given his rider Chad Bament takes ten pounds off, but I'd be confident Copperhead can get back into the winner's enclosure in a race his connections have not been shy about telling everyone they have been targeting since the later days of the summer.

15:35 Sandown - Free Bet With Unibet's Betbuilder Rebound Handicap Hurdle

Wrapping things up on ITV Racing on Saturday is this three mile hurdle at Sandown, and it looks competitive with three horses available to back between 3/1 and 5/1. Honky Tonk Highway is just about shading favouritism for the Skeltons and while this is a tougher race than he won over C&D last time out, he does look progressive and I'd favour him over the other two rivalling him for market leadership in Oh My Johnny and Navajo Indy.

Honky Tonk Highway's opening mark for this handicap debut could well be on the lenient side and I'd be more in favour of trusting him over Oh My Johnny who seems to make a costly error every time he runs, for all there is clearly talent there. Navajo Indy is riding the crest of the wave on the back of three wins on the spin but I feel the handicapper may well have him in his grip now, but Henry Daly's JOUR D'EVASION looks primed to me to finally get his head in front and with an expected strong pace in here I think this test will be perfect for him.

The Daly team are in fine form at present and while this horse is prone to the odd iffy jump, his form behind Ooh Betty here last time he ran over this course and distance is working out and a repeat performance could be good enough to win. I'm hoping Sam Twiston Davies isn't wedded to the idea of leading and potentially sits off just a touch, as there'll be a real battle for the front end judging by the market principals last respective runs, but as long as he's in front when it matters that's all that counts.