The Timeform TV Focus team pick out the best bets for the ITV racing at Aintree on Saturday.
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Aintree
1.20 1 pt ew – 11 Push The Button
This is what a Premier Handicap should look like. A maximum field, plenty of Irish representatives, a few novices and plenty of bang in-form runners with unfinished business in staying hurdles. In truth, it’s a tough-looking puzzle, but there are so many interesting runners that we get the chance to back Push The Button at long odds as a result. He was sent off at 80/1 when catching the eye in the Martin Pipe on his most recent start, doing well to finish sixth behind Wodhooh after being badly hampered at the start and still only mid-field at the final flight. That effort reinforced the view that Push The Button will prove ideally suited by staying trips and it’s also worth noting that his two disappointing runs this season have coincided with testing ground. Evidence from the first day of the meeting suggests conditions are anything but testing and it’s our view that a well-run race over an extended 3m will enable Push The Button to take his form up another notch, worth backing him each-way with so many firms offering 6 places.
1.55 No Bet Advised
Four-year-olds don’t run in this very often – the Emma Lavelle-trained Bouggler was the last one to be successful in 2009 – but they do receive a generous 10 lb weight-for-age allowance and, on these terms, it’s hard to see anything improving sufficiently to beat Lulamba if he’s able to repeat his Triumph form just three weeks on. That said, recent high-profile failures for Jonbon and Constitution Hill (x2) highlight the perils of going in hard at short odds and it’s fair to say that Lulamba did have a tough race at Cheltenham, engaging East India Dock from the second last before the pair succumbed late to Poniros. There’s also the half-mile longer trip to consider, which really shouldn’t be an issue for Lulamba under these conditions but still adds an unknown to the mix. In summary, it’s a race we’d rather leave alone, especially as the each-way terms are standard ones across the board.
2.30 1 pt – 16 Charlie Uberalles
The Ultima winner Myretown’s defection means the market for this has a much more open look than seemed likely and, in truth, a lot of those towards the head of the betting don’t have especially compelling profiles. Plenty will doubtless be put off Charlie Uberalles on account of him being 4 lb out of the handicap, but notwithstanding that inconvenience he does appeal as being overpriced. His latest effort at Kempton is fairly easy to overlook, paying the price for racing prominently in a strongly-run affair and the ground more testing than ideal, too. Prior to that, he’d overcome being 3 lb out of the weights when landing a useful handicap at Doncaster by a hard-fought neck from Docpickedme (who’s disputing favouritism for this with some firms), that effort further proof that Charlie Uberalles is ideally suited by a left-handed course on ground that isn’t testing. The absence of Myretown should mean that the early pace is less frenetic than it otherwise might have been, which should suit the prominent style of Charlie Uberalles, and with conditions in his favour it’s surprising he’s one of the outsiders.
3.05 1 pt – 11 Teahupoo
The concern with Teahupoo is that he seems at his very best when fresh and on testing ground, neither of which is the case this time, but he’s got several pieces of form – even under similar conditions - superior to anything his rivals can offer, and that includes recent second in the Stayers’ Hurdle. His main market rivals comprise Kitzbuhel, who’s admittedly unexposed but needs to improve plenty more stepping up a full mile in trip, Home By The Lee, who has finished behind Teahupoo every time they’ve met, and Strong Leader, who hasn’t seemed the same force this season as when winning this in 2024, and with all that in mind prices as big as 11/4 strike as being on the generous side about a very smart stayer who rarely fails to show his form.
4.00 2 pts – 8 Iroko
The Grand National might not seem the ideal race to have all the eggs in one basket, but the changing nature of the race means it rarely pays to look too far down the betting nowadays – Noble Yeats’s 50/1 win in 2022 standing out as the exception in recent seasons – and Timeform top-rated Iroko really does stick out as having had the perfect National preparation. Connections have clearly been working backwards from this race with him this season and he’s shaped well on each of his three completed starts, really catching the eye at Cheltenham two starts back then running well when second to Grey Dawning at Kelso last time. Iroko has excelled twice at this meeting before, finishing third in the 2023 Sefton then second to no less a rival than Inothewayurthinkin in last year’s Mildmay, and he's unexposed at staying trips, having only had three runs at around three miles despite leaving the impression stamina is very much his strong suit. In fact, it would come as no surprise to see him improve faced with a stiffer test here, and considering he’s already the pick of the weights judged on form in the book and has the jumping and cruising speed to cope with the demands of the National, he really is a candidate that ticks all the boxes.
You can access the TV Focus selections and rationale at 5pm the evening before racing for £7.50 on the Timeform website.
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