Padraig Roche

Those two Cheltenham wins stand out all the more because the broader numbers are modest. Roche has trained 53 winners across his career, and in the last 12 months his yard has sent out 128 runners for 8 winners — that's roughly 1 in every 16, a win rate of 6%. That's down from around 1 in 10 last season, which suggests this has been a harder year than the one before it. It's not unusual for small yards to fluctuate, but it's a dip worth watching.

His most regular jockey partner is Aidan Kelly, who has been on board for 43 of the yard's rides and ridden 3 winners — a win rate of 7%, or about 1 in every 14. That's a working partnership rather than a flying one, but there's clearly enough trust there to keep the relationship going. Less productive, at least on paper, is the combination with Sine Qua Non — four races together and no wins yet. That one hasn't clicked.

One area where Roche genuinely does stand out is on wet or muddy ground. He has won 1 race from just 5 in those conditions — that's 20%, or 1 in every 5, which is significantly better than his overall average. For a trainer operating at this level, finding an edge in specific conditions matters, and wet-ground form is worth keeping in mind when his runners appear on a soft or heavy day.

Four years in, 53 winners, and two of them at the top level of the sport at Cheltenham. The volume isn't there yet, and this season has been quieter than the last, but the ceiling has already shown itself. That's not nothing — that's actually quite a lot.