BACKING group-class campaigners in handicaps is no bad thing and Mine (3.20) fits the bill to perfection in this afternoon's Stanleybet Lincoln.

Trainer James Bethell hinted in a recent interview to readers of Racing North that he was considering running the top-notch seven-year-old in the Doncaster showpiece, and he has not let the side down by entering his stable-star for the £100,000 race.

Bethell knows exactly what it takes to scoop the valuable one-mile handicap, having claimed the prize with Hunters Of Brora in 1998. She was a very useful mare and Mine has shown himself to be equally capable of performing on the big stage, famously snatching last year's Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot under a never-say-die ride from Richard Quinn.

Mine has not long returned from a spell in Dubai, where he was far from disgraced in a couple of red-hot contests. He'll have benefited from that spell in the sunshine, both from a mental and physical perspective, which is an all-important factor during what has been a depressingly damp and miserable spring in our region.

"Mine has been a slow developing horse and I would have thought he's only just reached his full potential," reports Bethell, who if he's right could easily be on the brink of collecting a second Lincoln Handicap within the space of seven years.

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