The one track where Smart consistently punches above his weight is Thirsk. Four winners from just 18 runners there is a genuinely strong return — that's winning more than 1 in every 5 races at that course, well ahead of his overall figures. Trainers who know how to place horses well at a particular track tend to do so for a reason: they understand the ground, the draw, the distances. Thirsk looks like that place for Smart.
His most regular jockey partnership is with Harrison Shaw, who has been in the saddle for 58 of Smart's runners this season and ridden 4 winners — roughly 1 in every 14 rides together. That's a functional working relationship more than a sparkling one, with both men doing steady, unspectacular work. The partnership with Brave Traveller is similarly modest on paper: 1 win from 6 races together. Not a headline act, but a horse Smart clearly keeps coming back to.
What the numbers tell you about Bryan Smart is that he's a trainer building patiently, not one who arrived with fanfare. Eighty-six career winners in four years is honest, consistent work. The dip this season will need to level out, but the Thirsk record suggests there's real nous in there — the kind that tends to get rewarded over time.
| Course | Races | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle | 55 | 6 | 10.9% |
| Southwell | 31 | 4 | 12.9% |
| Thirsk | 18 | 4 | 22.2% |
| Ripon | 14 | 0 | 0% |
| Doncaster | 12 | 1 | 8.3% |
| Beverley | 9 | 0 | 0% |
| Musselburgh | 8 | 0 | 0% |
| Carlisle | 7 | 0 | 0% |
| Redcar | 6 | 0 | 0% |
| York | 6 | 0 | 0% |
| Catterick Bridge | 6 | 0 | 0% |
| Hamilton Park | 5 | 1 | 20% |
| Nottingham | 5 | 0 | 0% |
| Haydock Park | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Pontefract | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Wolverhampton | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Chester | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Ayr | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Leicester | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Wetherby | 1 | 0 | 0% |