David Harry Kelly

With 29 career winners since setting up in 2021, Kelly is still building his reputation, but the trajectory is clearly pointing upward. Training winners consistently takes years of learning — the horses, the tracks, the timing — and the fact that his numbers are improving this sharply this early suggests he is getting those lessons right.

His most reliable alliance on the track is with jockey Cian Quirke, who has ridden 49 times for the yard and turned 6 of those into winners, a win rate of roughly 1 in every 8. That is a meaningful partnership, the kind built on trust and communication between a jockey who knows how the trainer wants his horses ridden and a trainer who keeps sending his runners back to the same rider. It matters. One curious footnote: Mickey Hulie has partnered Kelly's horses eight times without a win between them, which is one of those combinations that just hasn't clicked yet, for whatever reason.

The story here is really one of momentum. Sixteen winners in a season is a solid return for a yard still finding its feet, and if Kelly can maintain — or better yet improve on — this season's form, he will soon be the kind of trainer that punters and owners seek out rather than stumble across. He is not yet a household name, but the foundations look solid and the direction of travel is hard to argue with.