Polly Gundry

Day to day, the numbers are more modest. This season she has sent out 60 runners and found the winner's enclosure just four times — roughly 1 in every 15 — and her win rate has slipped from around 1 in 10 last year to 1 in 14 this time around. For most yards, that would be cause for concern. For a small operation still finding its feet, it is the kind of statistic that needs context. What matters is what happens when conditions are right. On normal ground, Gundry's horses have won 4 from 26 races — 15%, or closer to 1 in every 6 — which suggests her string is well-suited to fair, standard conditions and tends to struggle when the ground turns wet and heavy.

Her most reliable ally in the saddle has been jockey Ben Poste, who has ridden 15 times for the yard and converted 2 of those into wins — a 13% win rate, or roughly 1 in 8. That is a meaningful partnership for a trainer at this stage of her career, and the continuity it brings clearly helps. There is also a long-running association with Sweet Nightingale, a horse Gundry has sent out 22 times for 2 wins. A 1 in 11 record with one horse tells its own story — this is a partnership built on patience and familiarity rather than fireworks.

Four years in, the overall picture is of a trainer who is still building but has shown, in flashes, that she can compete with the best. Two top-level wins before most trainers have properly established themselves is not a footnote — it is the headline. The rest is a work in progress, and an interesting one to follow.