Karl Thornton

This season, though, has been harder going. Four winners from 81 runners works out at roughly 1 in every 20 races, a win rate of 5% that has slipped from 7% last year. For context, the better-performing yards in Britain tend to win somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 10 races, so Thornton is working at the leaner end of the market. That is not unusual for a smaller operation still finding its feet, but it does mean results have been harder to come by than the yard would like.

His most notable partnership with a single horse is Shanroe Act, who has won 2 of the 13 races they have tackled together. Two wins from 13 sounds modest, but a trainer returning again and again to the same horse suggests a belief in what the animal can do on the right day. On soft or muddy ground specifically, Thornton's runners have won 1 from 12 — an 8% win rate — which actually outperforms his overall seasonal figure and hints that wet conditions may quietly suit his string.

The most surprising entry in his record is his partnership with jockey Robbie Colgan — 19 rides together and no wins yet. That is a long run of near-misses, and the fact that Thornton keeps booking Colgan suggests the relationship is about more than results alone, perhaps a shared understanding of how his horses need to be ridden. Sometimes patience in these partnerships does eventually pay off. So far, it hasn't.

Thornton is still a young trainer by the standards of the sport, and one top-level win from four years in business is a genuine marker of potential. The quieter seasons are part of how most training careers are built — steadily, with the occasional big day making it all worthwhile.