Nap Hand

His recent run of form is genuinely encouraging. Over his last six races, read from most recent backwards, he has gone 3rd, 4th, 4th, 2nd, 2nd, 1st — a sequence that shows a horse building steadily back towards his best after that win at Stratford-on-Avon in July 2025. That victory, eight months ago now, remains his most recent, and the challenge for his trainer Alan King is to turn those near-misses back into a winning result. King is one of the more prolific operators around this season — 57 winners from his Wroughton yard already — so Nap Hand is in capable hands.

The trickiest number in his record sits right at the heart of his campaign. He races most often at Class 4 level — solid, competitive racing, one step below the upper tier — and has won just 1 of those 18 races at that grade. That is roughly 1 in 18, a win rate of just 6%, which suggests this is genuinely competitive territory for him. His four career wins have not come easily, and when they do come, they mean something. His first arrived at Salisbury back in June 2022, which is where his story properly began.

Jockey Rossa Ryan has partnered him six times and won once together, a rate of roughly 1 in 6, which mirrors the horse's overall record fairly neatly — a partnership that works, even if it has not produced fireworks yet. With Nap Hand active and racing just 16 days ago, there is every sign the team is targeting another win soon. Given how close he has been running lately, it would be no surprise at all if he delivered one.