Charlie Longsdon

This season he has kept that momentum going, with 31 winners from 242 runners — that's roughly 1 in every 8, or 13% if you prefer a number. Across a full yard that is a solid, professional return. It means horses leaving his stable are winning consistently enough to suggest they are arriving at the track fit, well-prepared, and placed in the right races. Worcester has become a happy hunting ground in particular, with 5 winners from just 15 runners there — that is 1 in every 3, which is a remarkable conversion rate at any track and suggests he knows exactly what suits that course.

His most regular partnership in the saddle is with jockey David Bass, and together they have clicked on 6 occasions from 57 rides. That works out to roughly 1 in every 9.5 rides ending in a winner — a reliable enough combination that when you see Bass booked for a Longsdon horse, it is worth a second glance. Worth noting too that on very wet, muddy ground Longsdon's horses have won 1 from 5, a 20% return — a small sample, but a hint that the yard knows how to prepare a horse for difficult underfoot conditions.

The partnership with Graecia — just 1 win from 16 races together — tells a different story. Sixteen runs is a long time to wait for a breakthrough, and that one win will have felt well-earned. Not every horse-trainer partnership produces quick rewards, and persistence is a big part of what trainers do. The fact that Longsdon has kept running the horse shows the kind of patience that the job demands.

Still only four years in, with two top-level wins already on the board and a yard clearly finding its rhythm, Longsdon looks like a trainer with plenty more to add to that tally of 168.