Ismail Mohammed

The headlines from the last twelve months tell a consistent story: 14 winners from 148 runners, which works out at roughly 1 in every 11 races. That might not sound explosive, but in a sport where most small yards are doing well to win 1 in 15, it represents a trainer who is placing his horses well and getting results. The standout achievement of his career so far is a Class 1 win at Lingfield Park — one of the top races in Britain — which he landed on 13 November 2021, just months after he started training. Landing a race at that level so early in a career is the kind of result that makes other trainers sit up and take notice.

Lingfield Park clearly holds a special place for Mohammed, and the numbers at Southwell tell a similar story — 3 winners from just 15 runners there, a conversion rate that points to a trainer who understands certain tracks and targets them smartly. Ground conditions also appear to play a role: on fast, dry ground, his horses win at a noticeably higher rate, taking 5 races from 32 on that surface — roughly 1 in every 6. That is nearly double his overall average, which suggests his string is built around horses that like to travel quickly on top of the ground rather than slog through the mud.

His most productive partnership in the saddle is with jockey Tommie Jakes, who has ridden 5 winners from 43 races for the yard — about 1 in every 9. That is a working relationship worth watching, the kind of combination that tends to grow more effective as the seasons go on and the understanding between trainer and jockey deepens. The partnership with Al Amirah, meanwhile, is still searching for its first winner from four attempts together — a reminder that even the most promising combinations sometimes take time to click. At four years in, Ismail Mohammed looks like a trainer still on the way up.