'All he will do is improve' - Harris looking ahead with joint Middleham Park buy

Milton Harris is having the best season of his career and an old ally in the shape of Middleham Park Racing are among the owners investing in extra horsepower for the Wiltshire-based trainer.

Having trained Celebration Chase runner-up Chaninbar and the useful Rose Of The Moon for the syndicate a decade or so ago, Harris and the owners have recently enjoyed success on the snow of St Moritz with Mordred, while at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale on Thursday they teamed up to spend £50,000 on Copshill Lad.

Harris, who won the Adonis Hurdle on Saturday with Knight Salute, said: "Middleham Park are very good and cater for everybody, they're easy to deal with and the sport is better with them in it.

"They give people an opportunity to get into a nice horse and have some fun. We had 20 people on the winner's podium in St Moritz the other day."

Copshill Lad, a four-year-old son of Kingston Hill, was second on his only point-to-point start for Cormac Doyle at Kirkistown, finishing 15 lengths clear of the third-placed horse, and Harris is confident there is plenty to come from the raw youngster.

"He's only four but he jumped really well to finish second in a fair maiden," he said. "If you looked at him you'd think how did he do that as he's a big horse but very narrow still and not filled out. All he will do is improve and make into a nice staying chaser."

A €20,000 purchase by Springmount Stud from Roisin O'Brien at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale, Copshill Lad then made the same amount to Monbeg Stables at the Derby Sale in 2021.

He is the fifth foal out of the unraced Banyumanik mare Una Sorpresa, a half-sister to Punchestown Champion Four Year Old Hurdle winner United and multiple scorer Unbuckled. Copshill Lad is also a half-sibling to a winner in Flemensfirth gelding Hazzaar.

His trainer said: "Subject to how he is he'll run in a bumper in the spring, and then go novice hurdling next season and chasing the season after."

Harris also provided an upbeat bulletin on one of the stable's and syndicate's stars of the moment in Mordred, a Camelot half-brother to last season's Acomb Stakes second Imperial Fighter who has been making his mark on the snow at St Moritz this month.

From three starts, the six-year-old gelding won twice and was second in the feature Grosser Preis von St Moritz, earning nearly £30,000 in prize-money in the process - and but for some bad luck it could have been more.

"He pulled two shoes off and two shoes off on the ice is a bit like Bambi on ice, but he still ran very well," said Harris. "I guess the ultimate plan is to go back [to St Moritz], but more immediately he could run at Kempton on Wednesday.

"It all seems a bit quick but he's come out of it very well. It's like altitude training; when they come back from the mountains they produce more red blood cells, which in theory helps them, but he'll then have a break after Kempton."

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