Michael Blake

Where things get a little more interesting is on fast, dry ground. Blake wins 1 in every 11 races in those conditions — 9% compared to his overall 4% this season — which hints that he either has horses that genuinely prefer a firmer surface, or that he's getting better at targeting the right races when the ground suits. It's not a huge sample, but it's the kind of pattern worth watching. If you see a Blake runner declared when conditions are quick and dry, that's when his team appears to fire.

Twenty-four winners in four years won't set the world alight, but training racehorses is a slow-burn business. Many successful yards took the better part of a decade to hit their stride, and Blake is still well within that window. The question now is whether the next twelve months bring a step forward in both volume and win rate — because the dry-ground numbers suggest there's something to work with.