Nicky Martin

The numbers from the last twelve months are the headline. Martin has sent out 25 runners and had 9 winners — that's roughly 1 in every 3, a 36% win rate that would be the envy of trainers with yards three times the size. To put that in context, last year the same figure sat at just 6%, or about 1 in every 17. That kind of jump doesn't happen by accident. Something has clicked.

The biggest moment of Martin's career so far came on 27 December 2022, when she won a Class 1 race at Chepstow — one of the top races in the British calendar. Landing a race at that level in just your second year of training is the sort of result that makes the wider racing world take notice. It remains her only top-level winner, but in this sport, plenty of trainers spend entire careers without one.

One of the most revealing statistics in any trainer's record is how they perform in specific conditions, and Martin's numbers on wet, muddy ground are extraordinary: 4 wins from just 7 races, which works out at 57% — more than 1 in every 2. That suggests a yard that either understands how to prepare horses for testing conditions, or has simply found the right horses for the right days. Either way, when the weather turns and the ground gets heavy, Martin's runners are worth paying attention to.

Then there is Got A Dream, a horse that has become something of a flagship for the yard. Three wins from 9 races together — 1 in every 3 — is a partnership that speaks to a genuine understanding between trainer and horse. In a sport where the relationship between a yard and its best horse often defines a career, Got A Dream looks like exactly the kind of horse Martin can build around. At just four years in, the story is only getting interesting.