Helen Nelmes

The most consistent thread running through her time in training is her partnership with Universal Secret, a horse she has sent out 31 times. Together they have managed 2 wins from those 31 races, which tells you something honest about the level they are operating at — these are hard races to win, and getting two from that many attempts with the same horse speaks to a stubborn persistence on both sides. It is not a headline-grabbing statistic, but it is a real relationship built over time, and that counts for something in a sport where continuity matters.

The concern at the moment is momentum, or the lack of it. Going from even a modest win rate to nothing across 24 races is not a blip you can easily explain away. Whether that is down to the quality of horses available, a run of bad luck, or something in the yard that needs adjusting, only Nelmes and her team will know. What is clear is that she is still relatively new to this — four years in training is not long — and the early part of any trainer's career tends to involve learning expensive lessons quietly. The question is whether this season is one of those lessons, or the start of a turn in fortunes.