Ivan Furtado

Over the past twelve months, Furtado has posted 34 winners from 487 runners, which works out at roughly 1 in every 14 — a 7% win rate that sits at the sharper end of what you would expect from a trainer still finding his feet at this level. What makes that number more interesting is what has happened in the last fortnight: 1 winner from just 7 runners, a 14% win rate that is exactly double his season average. In training, a sudden spike like that is often a sign the horses in the yard are at their very best right now.

His most productive partnership is with jockey Tom Eaves, who has ridden 76 times for the yard and come home in front on 5 of those occasions — again that 1-in-14 ratio, which suggests a settled, trusted relationship rather than a casual arrangement. When a trainer keeps putting the same jockey up, it usually means they share an understanding of how the horses need to be ridden.

There are two specific areas where Furtado's numbers tick upward in a way worth noticing. On slightly soft ground — not the heavy mud of a waterlogged track, but ground that has a bit of give in it — he has won 3 from 27 races, an 11% win rate that is noticeably above his overall average. And at Redcar, the racecourse on the North Yorkshire coast, he has sent out 4 winners from 21 runners. That is nearly 1 in every 5 runners at that track turning into a winner — the sort of course record that suggests he understands the place, knows the horses that will handle it, and picks his spots well.

For a trainer just four years in, Furtado is building something quietly impressive: consistent winners, improving form, a go-to jockey, and tracks and conditions where he clearly has an edge.