Jack W Davison

This season, though, has been a quieter one. Davison has sent out 8 winners from 129 runners — that's roughly 1 in every 16 races — and his win rate has slipped from 9% last year to 6% now. That's not a crisis, but it's a noticeable dip, and it's the sort of thing that will be on the yard's mind as the season continues. Volume-wise, 129 runners in a year is a decent level of activity for a trainer still building, so there's no shortage of horses in the yard — it's just that the winners have been harder to come by lately.

His most reliable working relationship is with jockey James Ryan, who has partnered Davison's horses to 8 wins from 97 rides together — a win rate of 8%, or roughly 1 in every 12. That's a meaningful partnership, and the fact they've clocked up nearly 100 rides together in a relatively short training career suggests a real level of trust between the two.

One genuine bright spot is how the yard performs when the ground is soft and wet underfoot. Davison's runners have won 1 from 8 races in those conditions — 12%, or better than 1 in every 8 — which outperforms his overall figures and hints that he may have a particular feel for placing horses when the mud is flying. It's a small sample, but it's a trend worth watching.

The partnership with Sup Of Red is the one head-scratcher: eight races together without a single win. Whether that changes with time remains to be seen, but for now it stands out as the one pairing that hasn't clicked despite repeated attempts. Overall, Davison's trajectory is still pointing upward — a Class 1 winner before his third anniversary as a trainer is no small thing — and the question now is whether this season's dip is a blip or a sign that a rethink is needed.