Jonathan Sweeney

One area where Sweeney really stands out is when the weather turns nasty. On wet, muddy ground, his horses win 3 times from every 9 races — a 33% win rate that is almost double his overall average. That's not a fluke; that's a trainer who knows how to find the right race for the right horse when conditions suit. If you ever see a Sweeney runner declared on a waterlogged track, it's worth sitting up and taking notice.

His most regular partnership is with jockey Mr A P Ryan, who has ridden 15 times for the yard and come home in front on 2 of those occasions — a 13% win rate that trails Sweeney's overall figures slightly, but 15 rides together in four years of training suggests a working relationship that is still developing. These things take time, and the combination has clearly been trusted with enough runners that more wins together feel like a matter of when rather than if.

Twenty-three winners in four seasons won't set the world on fire on paper, but context matters here. Sweeney is a young trainer still assembling his operation, and clocking up 8 winners in a single 12-month stretch suggests the yard is moving in the right direction. The wet-ground numbers in particular hint at a trainer with a sharp eye for conditions — the kind of detail that separates someone who simply enters horses from someone who actually thinks about where they can win.