The quality of those top-level wins tells its own story. Ascot, Newmarket, Sandown Park — these are the venues that define a trainer's reputation, and Varian has been winning at all of them. The 2025 season alone has already produced three Class 1 victories: at Musselburgh in June, Sandown Park in August, and Doncaster in September. Winning one of the biggest races on the calendar is a career highlight for most trainers. Collecting three in a single season, across three different tracks, is something else entirely.
The numbers this season are equally impressive. Varian has sent out 86 winners from 479 runners — that is roughly 1 in every 6 races, an 18% win rate. In a sport where even the very best trainers expect to lose far more often than they win, landing 86 of your runners in the winner's enclosure across a season is a genuine measure of consistent excellence.
One track worth watching closely is Chester. That tight, oval circuit catches plenty of trainers out — horses need to handle an unusual shape and tight bends — yet Varian has turned out 4 winners from just 10 runners there. Winning 4 of 10 at a track that punishes those who don't understand it suggests Varian picks his spots carefully and knows which horses suit it.
His most trusted partnership on the track is with jockey Jack Mitchell, who has ridden 132 times for the yard and come home in front on 19 of those occasions — wins on roughly 1 in 7 rides. That might sound modest, but Mitchell is being handed a wide variety of runners, not just the yard's bankers. The consistency of the partnership, built up over hundreds of races, is exactly the kind of working relationship that allows a trainer to operate at the top level week in, week out.
| Course | Races | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kempton Park | 53 | 10 | 18.9% |
| Wolverhampton | 31 | 8 | 25.8% |
| Newcastle | 29 | 4 | 13.8% |
| Newmarket | 29 | 1 | 3.4% |
| chelmsford | 28 | 5 | 17.9% |
| Ascot | 26 | 2 | 7.7% |
| Lingfield Park | 24 | 4 | 16.7% |
| Goodwood | 24 | 2 | 8.3% |
| Doncaster | 23 | 7 | 30.4% |
| Newbury | 23 | 2 | 8.7% |
| Southwell | 20 | 5 | 25% |
| Windsor | 18 | 4 | 22.2% |
| Haydock Park | 17 | 3 | 17.6% |
| Great Yarmouth | 17 | 3 | 17.6% |
| Nottingham | 13 | 4 | 30.8% |
| Leicester | 13 | 1 | 7.7% |
| Sandown Park | 12 | 3 | 25% |
| York | 12 | 0 | 0% |
| Chester | 10 | 4 | 40% |
| Epsom Downs | 9 | 3 | 33.3% |
| Salisbury | 9 | 1 | 11.1% |
| Thirsk | 7 | 2 | 28.6% |
| Hamilton Park | 5 | 2 | 40% |
| Pontefract | 5 | 2 | 40% |
| Bath | 4 | 1 | 25% |
| Beverley | 3 | 1 | 33.3% |
| Redcar | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Ripon | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Catterick Bridge | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| Ayr | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Musselburgh | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Carlisle | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| The Curragh | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Leopardstown | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Brighton | 1 | 0 | 0% |