A J Martin

The current season has been a grind by comparison. Thirteen winners from 227 runners works out at roughly 1 in every 17 — around 6% — and that is down from 9% last year. Taken in isolation, that looks like a dip. But zoom in on the last two weeks and a sharper picture emerges: 2 winners from just 10 runners, a 20% win rate that is more than three times the season average. That kind of burst in form is worth paying attention to.

There are specific conditions where Martin's horses consistently show up well. On wet or muddy ground, the yard has won 2 from 11 races — roughly 1 in every 5 or 6 — which is well above the seasonal average and suggests the team knows how to pick their spots when the weather turns. Downpatrick is another happy hunting ground, with 3 winners from just 8 runners there, a return that any trainer would be satisfied with.

The most regular jockey in the yard is Daniel King, who has partnered Martin's horses 48 times for 3 wins. That 6% win rate mirrors the yard's overall figures, so while this is clearly the established working relationship, the partnership has not yet caught fire in the way that the Cheltenham result suggested it might. Both have shown they can deliver on the biggest days — the question now is whether they can string together enough of those smaller wins to push that seasonal average back up towards last year's mark.