Ollie Pears

This season captures where he stands right now: 9 winners from 121 runners, which works out at roughly 1 in every 13 races. That is a modest return by the numbers, and it reflects the reality of operating at a level where every winner has to be earned. Training is a game of patience, and a 7% win rate in your fourth year is less about struggling and more about the slow, unglamorous work of building a yard from scratch.

His most regular partnership is with jockey Harry Russell, though the numbers there are honest rather than flattering — 2 wins from 47 rides together, or roughly 1 in every 24 races. What that figure really tells you is that Russell is a reliable presence in the saddle for Pears, trusted with plenty of rides even when the horses aren't at their most competitive. Loyalty counts for something in this sport.

The most genuinely interesting number in his profile is on wet or muddy ground: 1 winner from just 8 races in those conditions, which works out at 12% — nearly double his overall rate. That is a small sample, so it would be unwise to read too much into it, but it hints that when the ground gets testing, Pears may know how to place his horses well. Trainers who understand conditions tend to punch above their weight on the days when others are caught out.

At four years in, Pears is still very much a trainer on the way up. Sixty-nine career winners is not a headline figure, but it is real, tangible progress — and in a sport where some yards wait years to get off the mark at all, it represents a genuine base to build on.