MAESTROS OF THE MIDLANDS

Hot on the heels of Cheltenham, it's a trip to Uttoxeter for the Midlands National

- Andy Newton

The Midlands National is always staged hot on the heels of the Cheltenham Festival – the day after in fact – so it often rides off the back of the momentum from the best four days of jumps racing.

If punters have had a good Festival, they will be keen to keep going and the Midlands National provides the perfect tonic to racing fans looking to reload and Cheltenham winnings.

Run at Uttoxeter races over 4m2f – then, it goes without saying, that stamina is very much needed and even though we’ve already had the Welsh National, the Midlands version also sees the start of the build-up to the Irish, Scottish and, of course, the Aintree Grand National in April.

Twelve months ago, we saw trainer Alan King get his name on the Midlands National roll of honour for the first time when his Major Dundee won by three lengths.

Owned by the late Trevor Hemmings, Major Dundee was also another National winner in his well-known green, yellow and white silks, while it also provided jockey Rex Dingle with a famous big-race win with just over £84k in prize money landed.

The good news is that there has also been a lot of big-race trends that have built up over the years and so punters looking to get involved in the Uttoxeter contest.

Let’s look at some of the main trends I’m taking about... Age – With a massive 18 of the last 20 winners aged 9 or younger, then surely, we can put a line through all the horses aged in double-figures. The 11 year-olds Regal Flow (2018) and Screaming Colours (2022) did fly the flag for the older statesmen, but they were the first horses to win aged in double digits since 1995.

Last year’s hero Major Dundee was aged 8 and we’ve now seen three of the last four winners that age.