Nigel Hawke

The headline moment came on 24 January 2026 at Cheltenham, when Hawke landed his first top-level race. Cheltenham is the sport's most famous and unforgiving stage, the kind of place where reputations are made and where the biggest yards in Britain and Ireland dominate year after year. For a trainer four years into the job to win there at the highest level is a serious achievement — the sort of result that signals a yard moving in the right direction.

What makes that win feel less like a one-off is the form Hawke has shown in the weeks around it. Over the past fortnight, he has produced 1 winner from just 6 runners — a win rate of around 1 in 6, more than twice his season average. Trainers who know their horses well tend to show spikes in form like this when they have horses ready to run at their best. It is worth watching.

Wet, muddy ground appears to bring out the best in the Hawke yard. On soft or heavy ground, his horses have won 3 from 19 races — roughly 1 in every 6 — compared to that 1-in-13 average across all conditions. That is a meaningful gap, not a fluke of small numbers. When the forecast turns bad, his runners are worth a closer look.

His most regular partnership with jockey James Davies has produced 2 wins from 37 rides together — about 1 in every 18, which is below the yard's overall rate. That said, long-standing jockey-trainer relationships are built on trust and communication as much as pure numbers, and Davies clearly remains the go-to rider. The combination with Square Du Roule stands out slightly more: 2 wins from 20 races together suggests a horse the yard knows well and returns to regularly. For a trainer still building his career, these consistent partnerships are exactly what a yard needs to grow on.