George Baker

This season, Baker has sent out 14 winners from 171 runners — roughly 1 in every 12 — which represents a dip from last year's 1 in every 8. That kind of slip is worth watching rather than worrying about. Training is a game of fine margins: a few horses underperforming, a few unlucky runs, and a percentage can shift quickly. What is more encouraging is what has happened in the past two weeks. Baker has sent out 5 runners and come back with a winner, a 20% return that is well above his season average and exactly the kind of form burst that suggests something is clicking at the yard right now.

His most regular jockey partnership is with Pat Cosgrave, who has ridden for Baker 49 times and converted 4 of those into winners. That is the same 1-in-12 rate as the yard's overall figures — a consistent, if not spectacular, combination. Cosgrave is an experienced and well-travelled rider, and the fact that Baker keeps returning to him suggests a working relationship built on trust rather than just convenience.

One genuinely interesting detail in Baker's record is how his horses perform when the ground gets a little soft and slippery underfoot. In those conditions, he has won 2 from 15 races — roughly 1 in every 7 — which is notably better than his overall rate. That suggests either a preference in the types of horses he sources, or a shrewd eye for placing them when conditions suit. Either way, it is the kind of edge that separates trainers who simply enter horses from those who think carefully about when and where to run them.

Baker is four years in and still building. The slight dip this season is a bump rather than a trend, and the recent upturn in form is a reminder that the yard has plenty of life in it. Somewhere in those 85 career winners are the foundations of something worth following.