Saturday Racing Tips: Time To Get Up fancied for Midlands National repeat

Uttoxeter provides us with the traditional post-Cheltenham big betting race on Saturday as the Boulton Group Midlands Grand National at 15:35 takes centre stage on a packed day of ITV racing.

Previous winners of the race have a dire record but I'm not going to let that put me off last year's victor Time To Get Up, who, let's face it, isn't the most imaginative selection, but clearly has a cracking chance.

Jonjo O'Neill's 9-y-o has had injury problems since taking this with something to spare last term, hence why we've only seen him twice since then, but his most recent outing when a distant third in the Grand National Trial at Haydock was an eye-catching one.

Returning from a four-month layoff there, Time To Get Up travelled as well as any before clearly blowing up as a lack of peak fitness took its toll, with Jonjo O'Neill jnr not giving him a hard time after.

That looked a perfect prep run for this assignment to me, and he's still low mileage compared to most in this race, plenty of which have been round the block and have few secrets from the handicapper.

There are enhanced place terms available on the Sportsbook, which will appeal to many, and I'll be astounded if this one doesn't finish in the first five at least, but for me he's a win-only job, and a confident one at that.

Unexposed Serious Charges could be well in

Again, in a lesson on stating the bleedin' obvious, the favourite Serious Charges looks likely to take all the beating in the Optimum Experience Handicap Hurdle at 13:50, as he could well have been let in lightly off an opening mark of 120.

Anthony Honeyball's improving 5-y-o travelled like a really good horse on his way to a second successive win in novice company at Fontwell last time, hurdling fluently to boot (only slight semblance of a mistake coming at the last), and was always doing enough on the run-in as he held One For The Wall by just over a length.

Timeform were suitably impressed and awarded Serious Charges a 126p rating for that performance, suggesting they think he still has plenty more to offer.

Okay, that race wasn't overly competitive, but the style with which this one disposed of his rivals was suggests to me he can take decent rank as a handicap hurdler, and I'd be surprised if he didn't prove much better than this opening mark in time.

As with the Midlands National, plenty of this field look exposed and it could be another one graduating from the novice ranks that proves the main threat.

Pulling Stumps has only had four outings to date, too, so he clearly has plenty of scope for progression, and had little trouble in drawing over seven lengths clear of Robin Des Fox in the manner of a strong stayer at Ludlow last time.

The form of that win was ordinary at best but this one is very much going the right way and it would be no surprise were he to make Serious Charges pull out all the stops. He just doesn't look quite as rounded to me as the selection at this stage, though (a little untidy with his jumping at times at Ludlow), which could be the difference.

Brief Times the pick under in-form jockey

Over at Kempton - and sticking with the theme of lightly-raced horses - I'm siding with Neil Mulholland's Brief Times to take the Virgin Bet Handicap Hurdle at 14:40.

This one was very much learning on the job as he took a pair of novice hurdles in November, the second of them coming at Doncaster, having won on his timber debut at Exeter.

The slight worry here is that he showed tendency to jump left during that Exeter win and jumped much better on the left-handed track at Town Moor.

However, some of those kinks seemed to have got ironed out as he hurdled with much more conviction on handicap debut at right-handed Wincanton last time, where he found only the equally unexposed Earth Company too good.

Provided Brief Times has learned a bit more again from that outing, and I've no reason to suspect he hasn't, he could prove well treated from a mark just 3lb higher.

Harry Reed takes the mount and he should be full of confidence having already ridden winners at Bangor, Hexham and Taunton this week, while his higher-profile colleagues having been plying their trade at Prestbury Park.

The one to beat is clearly Dan Skelton's Jay Jay Reilly, who appeared to take his form to a new level when slamming Inishbiggle by fifteen lengths off a mark of 118 in a Doncaster handicap last time.

While there's nothing wrong with that form, we are dealing with a horse who heads the market but has been raised over a stone for that win. He'll need to improve again to defy this sort of mark, but given who he's trained by that's clearly a big possibility, though I prefer to be with Brief Times at current prices.