S Woods

The headline achievement is a pair of Class 1 victories, the highest grade of race in Britain. One came at Pontefract in August 2022, the other at Sandown Park in July 2023 — two very different tracks, which suggests this isn't a trainer who relies on knowing one particular venue inside out. Getting to the top table of British racing even once takes years of work; doing it twice in the space of twelve months, and in only your second and third years of training, is the kind of thing that makes people in the sport pay attention.

The partnership with jockey Robert Havlin stands out on the numbers. Of the 42 times Havlin has ridden for the yard, 8 have ended in a winner — that's almost 1 in every 5 rides, or a 19% win rate. In a sport where 1 in 10 is considered solid going, nearly 1 in 5 with a specific jockey suggests something more than coincidence. These two clearly understand each other's strengths.

On ground conditions, the stats are telling. In normal conditions, Woods' runners have won 17 times from 103 races — a 17% win rate, or close to 1 in every 6. That is a noticeably stronger return than the overall season average of 24 winners from 229 runners, which works out at roughly 1 in every 10. It hints at a trainer who knows how to prepare a horse for a fair-weather day, and who may be more selective about running on testing ground.

Over the last 12 months, those 24 winners from 229 runners represent a solid, consistent operation — not a flashy one-season wonder, but a yard building steadily and already capable of producing a winner on the biggest days. A trainer four years in with two top-level wins already has a trajectory worth watching.