David Evans

The undoubted highlight of his career so far came on 1 October 2022, when he won a Class 1 race at Ascot — one of the most prestigious tracks in Britain, home to Royal Ascot and some of the biggest days in the sport. Landing a top-level race there after just over a year in the game is the kind of result that signals you belong at the highest level, and Evans has that moment on his CV permanently.

In the saddle, his most productive partnership is with jockey Pat Cosgrave, who has ridden 44 times for the yard and converted 6 of those into wins — a win rate of 14%, or roughly 1 in every 7 rides. That is meaningfully better than the yard's overall average of 1 in 10, which suggests Cosgrave and Evans are a combination worth paying attention to when they line up together. When a jockey and trainer consistently outperform their own baseline, it usually means there is a level of trust and communication that pays off on race day.

The stable's standout horse, Al Shabab, has been a trickier proposition — just 1 win from 13 races together. That kind of record sounds frustrating, but horses that run 13 times in the same colours are clearly well-loved by their team, and one win from that many races is not unusual for a horse running at a competitive level week after week. What it does tell you is that Evans keeps faith with his horses and campaigns them patiently, which in itself is worth noting.

Still only four years in, Evans is operating with the confidence of a trainer twice his experience. The Ascot win showed he can compete on the biggest days. The volume of winners shows he can do it consistently. Both things together make him one of the more interesting operators in the yard right now.