Charlie Clover

The standout story from that first season is the partnership with Salaria. Four wins from just 8 races together is a genuinely impressive hit rate — half of all their races have ended in the winner's enclosure — and that kind of consistency with a single horse suggests a real understanding of how to place and prepare a runner. When a trainer finds the right horse at the right moment in their early career, it tends to build confidence across the whole yard, and Salaria looks to have been exactly that horse for Clover.

Lingfield Park has been a happy hunting ground too. Four winners from 13 runners at that track means Clover is winning nearly 1 in every 3 races there, well above the season average. Trainers often develop instincts for particular tracks — the way the ground rides, how to time a run on a specific layout — and Lingfield already looks like a course worth watching closely whenever Clover sends a runner south.

The one puzzle in the numbers is the partnership with jockey David Egan. Fifteen rides together and not a single win is a curious blank spot in an otherwise productive season, and it is the kind of statistic that quietly raises questions — whether the horse selections haven't suited Egan's style, or simply that the right opportunity hasn't arrived yet. With a yard hitting its stride, that column is likely to change.

What makes Clover's first year genuinely interesting is the trajectory. A 0% win rate at the very start of the operation has turned into a 21% season — that is not a gradual improvement, it is a sharp upward curve that suggests a trainer who has learned fast and found their footing quickly. Twelve months in, with 24 winners on the board, the yard is already a name worth knowing.