Seamus Mullins

What makes the current moment genuinely interesting is what's happened in the last two weeks. Two winners from just 10 runners — that's 1 in every 5, compared to the 1 in 19 he's averaged across the whole season. That kind of sudden uplift usually means something: horses coming back to form, the yard hitting its stride, or simply a trainer who has found the right races for the right horses at the right time. Whatever the reason, right now is an unusually good time to be watching Mullins closely.

His best results come on normal ground — the kind of standard conditions that make up the bread and butter of the British racing calendar. Six wins from 73 races in those conditions gives him a win rate of roughly 1 in 12, meaningfully better than his overall average. It suggests his horses are trained to perform when the track is fair and predictable, rather than relying on extremes of wet or dry to bring out their best.

The partnership with jockey Daniel Sansom is his most productive working relationship, with 3 wins from 45 rides together — about 1 in every 15. That's a connection built over time and repetition, the kind of trainer-jockey combination where communication and trust matter as much as raw talent. Meanwhile, Mullins's long-running partnership with Hilltown — 2 wins from 25 races together — speaks to the loyalty that characterises smaller yards. Twenty-five races is a long road to travel with any horse, and the fact that Mullins has stuck with Hilltown through that journey says something about how he operates.

Seventy-two winners in four years, a yard firing at twice its usual rate right now, and a clear sense of how and where his horses run best. Seamus Mullins is the kind of trainer who rewards attention.