P J Flynn

The most reliable weapon in his armoury right now is jockey Robyn Donaghue-Leahy. Together they have produced 6 wins from 53 rides, a win rate of around 11%, or roughly 1 in every 9 — meaningfully better than Flynn's overall average this season. When a trainer consistently returns to the same jockey, it usually means there is a real working relationship there, a shared understanding of how the horses are being prepared and how they want to be ridden. That combination is worth watching.

Where Flynn's horses tend to perform best is on normal ground conditions — not too wet, not too firm. On those days, his runners have won 4 from 25 races this season, a rate of 16%, or 1 in every 6. That is more than double his overall average, which suggests he is particularly good at placing horses when the ground is in their favour, or simply that his string suits those conditions best. Either way, if you see a Flynn runner on a good day with standard underfoot conditions, the form figures are considerably more encouraging than the headline numbers suggest.

One partnership that has yet to click is with Highlander Addict — four races together and no wins so far. That does not tell us much on its own, but it is the kind of stat that sits in the back of your mind when you see the combination declared again. Flynn has the winners on the board overall, and with four years of experience now behind him, the foundations are clearly there. The question for the rest of this season is whether he can find his way back to the sharper end of his own recent standards.