Takeitorleaveit

The career arc here is genuinely interesting. Back in August 2025, Portman admitted the horse hadn't been as sharp as expected and decided to give it a break and a minor surgical procedure to help settle its temperament. The plan was straightforward: come back in the second half of September, find a race over a mile on softer ground, and try to get the horse winning off a relatively modest rating. It worked. Takeitorleaveit won at Bath on 14 September 2025, and that was just the beginning. The recent form reads 2-2-7-1-4-1 — two wins sandwiching a blip, with a second place either side of each win, which is the shape of a horse that consistently runs well rather than fluking the odd result.

The numbers back that up across the board. Nine career races, 2 wins and 4 places — that's a horse finishing in the top three more than half the time (6 from 9). The win rate sits at 22%, roughly 1 in every 5 races, which is solid for a horse this age still finding its feet. At its preferred distance of a mile to a mile and a quarter, those figures sharpen further: 2 wins from 6 races at that trip, a 33% win rate, or 1 in every 3 runs. It clearly needs that extra ground to express itself.

Jockey Rob Hornby has played a significant part in this story. In five rides together, Hornby has won twice — a 40% win rate that stands well above the horse's overall record, suggesting the partnership genuinely clicks. Portman's yard has been in excellent form this season, sending out 46 winners, so this horse isn't operating in isolation — it's part of a stable that knows how to get horses ready to win. Takeitorleaveit raced just one day ago and is very much in the thick of things right now, which means if Bath comes around again in the coming weeks, it will be worth paying close attention.