James Tate

In the last twelve months alone, Tate has produced 51 winners from 299 runners. That works out at roughly 1 in every 6 races, or 17% — a figure that sits comfortably above the average for most training operations in Britain. In a sport where sending out winner after winner requires getting dozens of small decisions right — from how a horse is prepared to which race it enters — sustaining that kind of output over a full season is genuinely impressive.

What really stands out, though, is how Tate has performed at the very top level. He has won 7 Class 1 races in his career — the biggest and most prestigious races in Britain — at venues including Lingfield Park, Haydock Park and Bath. He added two more top-level wins in the space of just three months in 2025, at Bath in April and Pontefract in July. Winning one of the sport's elite races is the kind of occasion that defines a trainer's reputation. Winning seven in four years, at a spread of major venues, suggests Tate knows exactly how to prepare a horse for a big day.

The most reliable weapon in Tate's armoury has been his partnership with jockey Clifford Lee. Together they have notched 10 wins from 47 rides — a win rate of 21%, meaning they click into gear roughly 1 in every 5 times they team up. That is a meaningful relationship built on trust and communication between trainer and jockey, and those partnerships tend to pay off when it matters most.

Four years in, James Tate already looks like one of the more exciting trainers working in British racing right now. The volume of winners shows a yard operating in good health. The Class 1 victories show it can compete with the best. And at just four years into his career, the obvious question is how much further he can take it.