Lakers

The career began to take shape on 17 July 2024 at Ffos Las, where Lakers broke its duck for the first time. That first win is always the one that matters — it tells you a horse has figured something out. Since then, the most recent victory came at Southwell on 31 October 2025, and while that was five months ago now, Lakers has raced just once in the last thirty days and remains an active, competitive horse. The recent form string of a win followed by a third tells a story of a horse still knocking on the door.

The one area where Lakers has not yet cracked the code is at Class 2 level — the better-quality races in the calendar. Three attempts, zero wins. That is not unusual for a horse still finding its feet at the top of the game, and it is worth noting that simply getting into those races in the first place puts Lakers ahead of the vast majority of horses in training. But it does suggest the yard, based at Kevin Philippart De Foy's operation in Newmarket, knows there is another gear to find if Lakers is going to win at that level.

Philippart De Foy is a trainer worth watching. His yard has sent out 43 winners already this season, which is a genuinely busy and productive operation — the kind of team that knows how to place a horse where it can win. The fact that Lakers keeps appearing in decent races, and keeps picking up cheques when it does, says the trainer is managing this horse carefully and with a plan. Whether that plan involves cracking the Class 2 puzzle is the interesting question hovering over the next few months.