James Evans

This year, Evans has sent out 8 winners from 105 runners, which works out at roughly 1 in every 13 races. That is a step back from last season, when he was winning at closer to 1 in every 8. It is not a crisis, but it is the kind of dip that will have Evans and his team looking hard at what has changed — whether that is the quality of horses coming through the yard, a run of bad luck, or simply the natural ebb and flow of a small operation finding its level.

Where Evans does look sharp is on normal ground, the kind of conditions you get on a dry summer afternoon when the track rides well. On that surface he has won 5 from 42 races this season, a win rate of 12% — exactly where he was operating overall last year. That suggests the horses in his care tend to show up better when the ground is reliable underfoot, and it is worth bearing in mind if his runners appear on a firm, fast day.

His most regular jockey is Joe Leavy, who has partnered Evans-trained horses 26 times and ridden 2 winners from those rides. That is a win rate of roughly 1 in every 13, which mirrors the yard's overall numbers — so Leavy is not notably lifting or dragging down the results, just reflecting where the stable currently sits. The more eyecatching statistic involves a horse called Kapamazov, who has had 14 races with Evans without winning once. Fourteen attempts is a long run without a breakthrough, and at some point the conversation turns from patience to whether the partnership has simply run its course.

Evans is still in the relatively early stages of building a training career, and 70 winners in four years is a respectable base to work from. The challenge now is reversing a slide in form before it becomes a habit.