Get Up Everybody

The recent form tells a story of consistent improvement. In the last six races, this horse has finished seventh, fourth, third, third, eighth, and second — that sequence, read from oldest to newest, shows a horse gradually creeping closer to the front. A second place and two thirds in the last four outings is not the record of a lost cause; it is the record of a horse knocking on the door. Paul Midgley, who trains out of Westow in North Yorkshire and has sent out an impressive 39 winners already this season, is clearly not worried. He describes Get Up Everybody as a big, raw, slow-maturing horse — the kind that simply needs time for its body and mind to catch up with its potential. The second place at Thirsk last week, Midgley says, only came unstuck because the horse bumped into a rival that was very well weighted for that particular race. In other words: the performance was there, the result just didn't follow.

Jockey David Nolan has been aboard for eight of the twelve races together without finding the winner's circle, but that partnership has clearly been part of a horse that is trending upward rather than treading water. Most of Get Up Everybody's races have come at Class 5 level — the entry-level tier of British racing — which means the competition is within reach. Winning even one race at this level would not be a headline moment, but it would be the breakthrough that Midgley clearly believes is coming.

The trainer's confidence is the most compelling detail here. He has a horse with a great attitude, he says — and in racing, attitude often counts for more than raw ability, especially with a late developer. Some horses need a season just to figure out what they are doing. Get Up Everybody, raced as recently as yesterday, is still very much a work in progress. The question is not whether it can win, but when.