This season, Down has managed 3 winners from 43 runners, which works out at roughly 1 in every 14 races. That is up from around 1 in every 20 last year, so there is genuine improvement happening, even if it is modest. Progress at this level often comes slowly, and moving from 5% to 7% in a single season suggests the yard is trending in the right direction.
What stands out most, though, is the partnership with jockey James Davies. Seventeen rides together without a single winner is a striking statistic — not because it reflects badly on either man necessarily, but because it shows how fine the margins are at this level of the sport. When a trainer and jockey keep coming back to each other through that kind of run, it speaks to a working relationship built on trust rather than pure results. The question is when, not if, that patience gets rewarded. Similarly, Down's most notable horse, Reel Orange, has run seven times for the yard without finding the winner's enclosure — another reminder that in racing, things rarely happen on your preferred timeline.
At 32 career winners and still only four years in, Down has plenty of time to turn these numbers into something more convincing.
| Course | Races | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newton Abbot | 10 | 2 | 20% |
| Chepstow | 4 | 1 | 25% |
| Exeter | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Taunton | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Uttoxeter | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Worcester | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Stratford-on-Avon | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Warwick | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Wincanton | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Kempton Park | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| hereford | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Ffos Las | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Salisbury | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Ludlow | 1 | 0 | 0% |