Ewan Whillans

This season tells the clearest story of where he currently stands: 28 winners from 265 runners, which works out at roughly 1 in every 9 races. An 11% win rate might sound modest, but in a sport where most runners lose, sending out more than one winner every fortnight across a full campaign is genuinely productive work. It points to a yard that knows how to place horses well — getting the right horse into the right race on the right day is half the job in training, and Whillans appears to have a good eye for it.

The highlight of his young career came on 12 April 2025 at Ayr, where he won a Class 1 race — one of the very best races in Britain. To put that in context, the vast majority of trainers never win a race at that level. Doing it within four years of starting out is the kind of result that makes the wider industry sit up and take notice. That it came at Ayr, a track with strong Scottish ties, will have made it all the sweeter.

His most regular partnership in the saddle is with jockey Craig Nichol, and together they have clicked five times from 53 races — roughly 1 in every 11 rides. That is not a barnstorming hit rate, but partnerships in racing are built on trust and familiarity as much as raw numbers, and five winners together across a relatively short career suggests a combination worth watching. When the ground dries out, Whillans also becomes notably more dangerous: on fast, dry ground his horses have won 2 from 11 races, which is roughly 1 in 5 — nearly double his overall average. That hints at a yard whose horses particularly like a quick surface.

Still only four years in, still growing his string, and already a winner at the top table — Whillans looks like exactly the kind of trainer who will be significantly harder to ignore in another four years' time.