Lucinda Russell

The Scottish angle matters here. Perth is Russell's home patch in every sense, and the numbers reflect it — 4 winners from 48 runners at the track, a rate of roughly 1 in every 12. That might not sound dramatic, but in a sport where even the best trainers miss far more often than they hit, having a track where your horses consistently perform is a real asset. Perth also handed Russell a top-level win in April 2024, suggesting she knows how to target that track with her best horses at exactly the right moment.

Russell has been training since 2021 and has already reached 300 career winners — a significant milestone that reflects consistent, professional operation over four years. The current season, however, has been a tougher one. She is winning roughly 1 in every 15 races right now — 10 winners from 152 runners — and her win rate has dipped from around 1 in 8 last year to 1 in 14 this season. That kind of drop is worth noting, though it is not unusual for yards to go through quieter spells between big results, and the top-level wins at Kelso and Cheltenham in early 2025 suggest the best horses in the team are still delivering when it counts.

Her most regular pairing with jockey Patrick Wadge has produced just 1 win from 45 rides together — a 2% win rate that is, frankly, modest. Whether that reflects the type of races they tend to target together or simply an unlucky run of results, it has not yet become the high-percentage partnership that top trainers often build their seasons around.