Saturday Racing Tips: No Cheltenham, no problem

The Cheltenham Festival is done and dusted and it's straight onto the Midlands National meeting at Uttoxeter. What a sport.

My Saturday racing tips comprises of a couple from Staffordshire - including a 10/3 Nap - and one from Kempton.

14:25 Uttoxeter - A Pai De Nom @ 10/3

It was yet another successful Cheltenham Festival for the Skeltons, especially in the handicaps. It could've been even better, though, if A PAI DE NOM wasn't balloted out of the Martin Pipe.

The six-year-old son of Passing Glance was among the favourites for Friday's finale before his omission, and it's fair to say connections were rather bullish about his chances.

Luckily for them, there's a race at Uttoxeter not even 24 hours later that's worth the exact same amount (£38.5k) to the winner. Result.

He's got some strong form in the book and a rise of just five pounds for dotting up at Newbury last time out, on his first try over this three-mile trip on desperate ground, is very lenient as far as I'm concerned.

If he was fancied for the Martin Pipe, he must be really fancied for this. I can't believe his price at time of publication. Nap material.

15:00 Uttoxeter - J'Arrive De L'Est @ 11/4

Another Cheltenham absentee to grace Uttoxeter on Saturday is J'ARRIVE DE L'EST for Emmet Mullins.

The seven-year-old is a warm favourite for the Midlands Grand National after missing both the Cross Country and Kim Muir at last week's Festival, and it's not hard to see why after his form was given a significant boost in the week.

His defeats to Final Orders, who won the Cross Country at the Festival on Wednesday, and Favori De Champdou, who was runner-up, look pretty handy now and the French-recruit's mark of 126 remains unchanged.

He's got a mighty chance under James Bowen, oozing confidence after a couple of winners on the biggest stage of all.

15:18 Kempton - Ryan's Rocket @ 9/4

Another one - RYAN'S ROCKET was balloted out of Wednesday's Grand Annual so instead runs on Saturday, in a 0-150 handicap chase over 2m4½f at Kempton.

I gave Fergal O'Brien's eight-year-old a big chance at Cheltenham. He was a good winner of Newbury handicap off 129 back in November, before unseating at the eighth fence in the Desert Orchid at Kempton over Christmas. It was too early to predict exactly where he'd have ended up, but he was certainly going very well at the time of departure.

That form is red-hot. The winner, Thistle Ask for the Skeltons, is now rated 158 and was runner-up to Jonbon in the G1 Clarence House - while the second-placed Saint Segal occupied the same spot behind Lulamba in the Game Spirit on his subsequent start.

Ryan's Rocket was, bizarrely, dropped a pound, so he comes to Kempton off a mark of 134. He ought to be very, very competitive off that in a weaker contest than the Grand Annual.

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