Nick Littmoden

Where Littmoden does find something close to a foothold is on fast, dry ground. His record in those conditions reads 1 winner from 9 races — 11%, which means he wins roughly 1 in every 9 races when the sun has been out. That is meaningfully better than his overall numbers and worth keeping in mind on a dry summer's afternoon.

His most regular jockey partnership is with Jack Quinlan, who has ridden for him 11 times without finding the winner's enclosure. That kind of run can be frustrating for everyone involved, but 11 rides is still a relatively small sample for a yard this new, and partnerships often take time to click. Similarly, the horse Mio Amico has run three times for Littmoden without winning — not unusual for a small operation still working out which horses suit which races.

The honest picture is this: Littmoden is in the early, unglamorous phase of building a training career, where winners are hard-won and every small improvement matters more than the headline numbers suggest. One year in, with two winners already on the board, the foundation is there. The question is simply whether the results start to reflect the work being done behind the scenes.