Michael Winters

One area where Winters has a clear edge is when the rain arrives. On wet, heavy ground, his horses win roughly 1 in every 6 races — 2 wins from 12 attempts at 17%. That is nearly double his overall rate, which suggests he either targets those conditions deliberately or trains his horses in a way that suits them. Either way, if you see a Winters runner declared on a waterlogged track, it is worth a second look.

His most consistent partnership on the track has been with River Vale, a horse he has run 16 times for 2 wins together. Two from sixteen is not a flashy number, but the volume of the partnership tells you something — this is a combination the yard has kept believing in, and the wins, when they have come, have been earned through persistence rather than luck. His most frequent jockey booking has been Darragh O'Keeffe, who has ridden 11 of his horses for 1 win between them — a 1-in-11 return that mirrors Winters' overall season rate almost exactly.

At four years in, Winters is still in the early chapters of what could become an interesting career. The foundations are there: a developing string, a meaningful partnership with a regular jockey, and a genuine knack for wet-ground racing that smarter punters will have already filed away. Whether the win rate climbs back toward last year's level — or beyond — is the question the next twelve months will answer.