Nigel Twiston-Davies

The recent CV is hard to argue with on quality. Three top-level wins in the space of two months — Aintree on Boxing Day 2024, Cheltenham in late January, and Newbury in February 2025 — is the kind of sequence that takes real ability to put together. Those are not obscure midweek contests; those are the racecourses that define careers, and Twiston-Davies has 25 victories at that level to his name across Cheltenham, Aintree, Wincanton and beyond. When his horses turn up for a big occasion, they tend to be worth watching.

The complication is the numbers underneath that headline. Last season he was winning around 1 in every 7 races — a healthy rate for a yard of his size. This season that has slipped to roughly 1 in every 13, with just 3 winners from 39 runners overall. That is the kind of dip that happens to every trainer at some point, but it is noticeable. The interesting thing is that on normal ground, his record holds up better: 3 wins from 24 races, or about 1 in 8, which suggests the horses are performing reasonably well when conditions suit them.

One partnership worth keeping an eye on is with Moveit Like Minnie, who has won 5 of their 27 races together — a record built over enough runs to mean something. His most frequent jockey this season is Sam Twiston-Davies — his son — who has ridden 15 of those 39 runners and steered home 2 of the 3 winners, a win rate of around 1 in 8 on that particular combination. Family yards have their own dynamic, and when the partnership clicks, it clearly delivers.

Four years into his current chapter as a trainer, Twiston-Davies looks like someone capable of landing the races that matter most, even if the volume is down. Three top-level wins in a winter is not a crisis — it is a reminder that the quality is still there, waiting for the numbers to follow.