Thomas Mullins

The most eyebrow-raising number in his record is the partnership with jockey Danny Mullins. Thirty rides together, zero wins. In racing, you'd normally expect a trainer to lean on a jockey that often because the combination is producing results — but not here. It's a puzzling stat, and at some point the question has to be asked whether that partnership is working as well as either side would like.

There's a brighter picture when the ground is right. On normal conditions, Mullins wins 2 from 29 races — around 1 in every 14 — which is a genuinely respectable return and suggests his horses perform at their best when the track is riding fairly. It's a small but meaningful signal that the yard still knows how to get a horse ready to win when conditions suit.

The most interesting thread in his career is the long-running story with San Aer. Four wins from 47 races together is modest on paper — that's less than 1 in every 10 — but 47 races is a serious commitment to one horse, and the fact that they've kept finding opportunities together for that long speaks to a real working relationship between trainer and runner. San Aer is clearly a horse Thomas Mullins knows inside out, and that kind of familiarity is often worth more than the numbers suggest.

The broader picture is of a trainer who has proven he can find winners — 41 of them is no accident — but who is currently going through the kind of lean spell that every yard experiences at some point. The tools are there. The ground form is encouraging. Whether this season turns around depends on finding a way back to the consistency that made last year look so much more promising.