The racehorse, COPPER KNIGHT’S enduring love affair with York may continue this Friday as he holds an entry for the race bearing his name.

The nine-year-old, who has recorded seven victories and counting on the Knavesmire, could line up in the ‘Copper Knight – Winning Most Horse at York Handicap’.

The race is staged over the evergreen gelding’s favourite five furlongs and is sponsored by the Yorkshire family that have joint-owned him since early in his three-year-old campaign.

Three generations of the Denhams are involved with the Tim Easterby-trained horse, whose career record stands at 14 wins from 87 starts – 25 of which have been at York.

Keith, Tony and Thomas Denham run their horses under the banner of Ventura Racing, who own Copper Knight in partnership with Habton Racing.

Tony Denham said: “He means the world to us. Dad and I have had a lot of success with big syndicates, namely Middleham Park Racing, over the last 15 years and counting. We’ve been all over the world with runners including Hong Kong, Dubai, Melbourne and France but none of that compares with the journey Copper has taken us on and especially the York wins. 

“York has always been our favourite racecourse and to have a horse that can win there is brilliant in itself; to have one that has won seven times there is incredible. I know plenty of owners who have runners at York on a regular basis and haven’t yet managed a win.

“York does tend to favour speed and front running and this is the only way Copper knows how to run. He breaks so well from the stalls and is often in front at the first furlong pole.  At York he seems to be able to maintain that speed to the line where at other courses he can be run down.”

Tony is quick to praise the Easterby stable for the major part it’s played in the success story.

He said: “Tim and the team have done a great job getting Copper to the track so many times for us.  As the years have gone by Copper has dictated his own training program; he does less work at home these days just because he’s older etc. There are no plans to retire him. He will tell us when he’s had enough.”

Tony outlined that the horse has recently been recovering from a minor setback, so is not guaranteed to go to post this Friday.

He said: “Copper picked up a small injury after his last run (a month ago at Haydock) but seems on the mend.  I honestly don’t know at this stage whether Tim will declare him.  If he runs you can never count him out given he’ll run off 82.”

Either way, the name of Copper Knight will be echoing around the grandstands at 5pm when the race celebrating his feats is run. It is the third time the Denhams have sponsored the sprint contest.

“Dad and I wanted to do something to mark his achievements,” explained Tony. “Hence we have the Copper Knight – Winning Most Horse at York Handicap.  Hopefully, we won’t have to change the name next year!”

York’s final meeting of the year gets underway at 2.05pm on Friday. The curtain comes down on Saturday with the feature race being the Coral Sprint Trophy, a £100,000 heritage handicap.

You can catch all the action across the two days on Racing TV.