Max Young

What makes that figure harder to ignore is the direction of travel. Last year the win rate sat at 2%, which is already modest, but this season it has halved to 1%. That kind of dip is not just bad luck — it is the sort of trend that asks questions of everything: the horses coming through the yard, the decisions being made, the overall setup.

The most telling number of all might be the partnership with jockey David Noonan. They have teamed up 11 times together and have yet to find the winner's enclosure — 0 wins from 11 rides. That is the most frequent jockey-trainer combination Young has going, and it has produced nothing. Whether that is down to the horses, the tactics, or simply a run of misfortune is hard to say from the outside, but it is difficult to build momentum when your most regular alliance is not converting.

There is one small bright spot. On normal ground conditions, Young's horses win at 3% — one win from 33 races in those circumstances — which is noticeably better than his overall rate. It is a thin thread, but it suggests there may be conditions under which his yard can compete more effectively. His longest-running partnership is with Woodhay Whisper, a horse he has raced 11 times, though that combination has produced just the one win between them.

Young is still a young trainer in industry terms — four years in is early days, and plenty of successful yards took time to find their feet. But right now, the numbers paint a picture of a operation that needs a turning point.