Ciaran Murphy

The clearest sign of progress is that his win rate has ticked up from 6% last year to 7% this season. One percentage point doesn't sound like much until you consider that across 261 runners, it represents a meaningful step forward — more horses ready on the day, more races run to a plan. Small gains compounding over time is exactly how smaller yards build reputations.

His most reliable partnership is with jockey E Walsh, though it is worth being honest about what the numbers say: 3 wins from 55 rides together is a win rate of around 1 in 18, which is modest. That said, 55 rides is a significant body of work, and the fact that Murphy keeps turning to the same jockey suggests a working relationship built on trust rather than pure results alone.

Where Murphy does show a clear edge is when the ground comes up soft — wet or muddy underfoot. In those conditions, his horses have won 3 from 27 races, an 11% win rate, or roughly 1 in every 9. That is meaningfully better than his overall figures and suggests he has horses in his yard that genuinely thrive when conditions get testing. For anyone watching his runners on a rainy afternoon, that is worth knowing.

Still only four years in, Murphy is a trainer in the process of becoming rather than one who has arrived. Sixty-eight career winners is a solid foundation, the win rate is moving in the right direction, and there are already conditions where his horses outperform expectations. The story here is one of gradual, unglamorous progress — and in training, that is usually how the lasting careers are built.