It looks just the White Thyme to take Rum Before Midnight 
YOU’VE got to have a few pounds in hand to win today’s Red Rum Chase (4:40pm) at Aintree.
Last year’s winner, Editeur Du Gite, won off a mark of 132, and has since gone on to win competitive handicaps at Cheltenham off 140, 147 and finish fourth in unsuitably heavy ground Grand Annual off 153.
Though shouldering a stack more weight than that winner from 12 months ago, BEFORE MIDNIGHT could be much better than his mark of 148 and is worth a good each-way bet at 13/2 with Star Sports.
He’s been ultra-progressive for in-form trainer Sam Thomas this season, landing two nice pots at Cheltenham and Ascot on his first two starts of the campaign – form which led Thomas to chance his arm at the Grade Two Desert Orchid the day after Boxing Day.
Although that company turned out to be a bit too hot for him, he wasn’t embarrassed in finishing last of the four, 20 lengths behind the mighty Shishkin.
But it is his most recent run at Doncaster that’s enough to tempt me into tipping him today – a neck defeat to subsequent Champion Chase runner-up Funambule Sivola, for which the handicapper has left his mark unaltered.
Now, this race is very competitive, and there will be a clutch of horses in the maximum field of 18 that believe they’re the right side of the handicapper, but that piece of form stands out most to me and I think he’ll go very close.
At a double-figure price, THYME WHITE can fill the frame.
Paul Nicholls thought he had a big chance with this horse in the aforementioned Grand Annual, but the heavens opened, and he was pulled out.
He ran well enough two weeks ago at Ascot, but remains off a winnable mark of 142.
POINTERS
Before Midnight e/w 4.40pm Aintree
Thyme White e/w 4.40pm Aintree