Market Rasen on Friday: Veterans' Final preview and video tip

Joe Tizzard has high hopes for stable stalwarts and when they lock horns in the rearranged Unibet Veterans’ Handicap Chase at .

The race has been rerouted to the Lincolnshire circuit after being beaten by the weather at Sandown and Warwick, and Tizzard is grateful the race was able to be saved.

Copperhead

has enjoyed a stellar season and completed a hat-trick at Aintree in October. He has just been touched off on his last two starts, only headed by a neck by Numitor at Cheltenham last month, with Eldorado Allen behind him in third.

Tizzard’s nephew Freddie Gingell will be back on board Copperhead at Market Rasen as he steps back up in trip from an extended two and a half miles to three miles.

Tizzard said: “He jumped and travelled really well and just got done for a bit of toe again, but ran a blinder. He’s having a cracking season and he’s loving these races for older horses.

“He’s really gained all of his confidence back. It’s a bit further again back at Market Rasen and he should run his race, which means he should be thereabouts.”

Eldorado Allen has been placed on both his starts this season following wind surgery in August and will again be fitted with cheekpieces.

Tizzard added: “He ran a lovely race (at Cheltenham), he got outpaced around halfway but stayed on well so we’ll just pop the cheekpieces back on him to make him concentrate mid-race.

“I wouldn’t like to split them, there is not too much between them, they’ve both been brilliant horses and I’m really pleased they’ve rearranged this race a couple of times.

“I might let Eldorado Allen have another go over the National fences, but drop back to the Topham. They’re in these veteran races and there’s plenty of them over two and a half and three miles and there’s good money, so we’ll just sort of concentrate on them really.”

Sam Brown will attempt to defend the crown he won for Anthony Honeyball last year when it was relocated to Warwick and will be boosted by conditional Chad Bament taking 10lb off the top-weight of 12st.

Honeyball said: “His third in the Charlie Hall sort of says he is running to a mark in the 150s there and if we run him off what is effectively 143, I don’t think he will have gone downhill overnight.

“I think if Chad and him get on well and have average luck, he has to be thereabouts.”

Elsewhere on the card, Fergal O’Brien is making no secret of the regard in which he holds

Dream Shadow

ahead of her bid for Listed success.

A £100,000 purchase after winning an Irish point-to-point in the spring of 2023, the six-year-old finished third on her bumper debut at Uttoxeter 12 months later before returning to the Staffordshire circuit to open her account in October.

Having missed a couple of potential outings since, Dream Shadow bids to follow in the hoofprints of her esteemed stablemate Dysart Enos by landing the the Unibet Alan Swinbank Mares’ Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race.

“She’s a lovely mare and the owners have been extremely patient because we were meant to go to Cheltenham (in November) and the ground was a bit quick, and then we were meant to go somewhere else and she didn’t scope right,” said the Ravenswell Farm handler.

“She’s a been a bit frustrating for everyone, for us and the owners, but she’s a very good mare, we love her and hopefully she can reward their patience on .

“You need a decent one to win this race, we think she’s good and her form is solid because our other one that finished second to her at Uttoxeter (Strong Run) went on to finish third at Cheltenham behind another one of ours (Siog Geal) that has won a hurdle race since.”

Dream Shadow is unlikely to have things all her own way, with several talented rivals lying in wait.

Alan King is represented Charisma Cat, who has impressed in winning her two starts at Southwell and Warwick, while Dan Skelton saddles both Carlisle scorer Getawhisky and Settle Down Jill, who finished fourth in Cheltenham’s Listed bumper in November on what was her rules debut.

Queenofthejukebox (Noel Williams) and Smile Back (Richard Phillips) also feature in what promises to be an informative contest.