Handle With Care

The place to start is Lingfield Park, a track in Surrey with a famously tight, turning layout that suits certain horses down to the ground — and Handle With Care is one of them. Two wins from just 4 races there is a remarkable return, effectively winning half the time at a track where most horses are lucky to get their name on a result sheet once. Both wins have come on normal ground, which also matters: on fast or wet surfaces, the horse has drawn a blank. Get the right track, get the right conditions, and this is a horse that delivers.

Those wins have come with Hollie Doyle in the saddle. One of the most recognisable jockeys in British racing right now, Doyle has partnered Handle With Care in 8 of its 16 races and won 2 of them — a win rate of 25%, or 1 in every 4 rides together. That is a strong partnership by any measure, and it is no coincidence that both victories belong to this combination. The horse seems to bring out something in each other.

Training duties fall to Marco Botti, whose Newmarket yard has been in excellent form this season with 40 winners already sent out. Botti's operation is not one of the enormous powerhouse stables, but it is consistent and professional, and Handle With Care fits neatly into the kind of reliable, competitive horses the yard does well with. The horse usually competes at Class 4 level — solid, mid-tier racing — and has won 1 from 8 at that grade, suggesting it is competitive without always finding a way to the front.

Recent form reads 7-4-3-1-6-7, which tells you this is a horse that blows hot and cold. That win in the middle of the sequence — at Lingfield on 31 December 2025, just three months ago — is the most recent victory, and with a race under its belt just yesterday, it is clearly fit and active. Watch for it when Lingfield comes around again.