Paul Traynor

The one area where there is a flicker of something more promising is on slightly soft ground, where Traynor's horses have won 1 from 5 races — a 20% win rate, or roughly 1 in every 5. That is a meaningful contrast to his overall figures, and suggests that when the conditions suit, his horses are capable of performing at a much higher level. Any punter watching his runners would do well to pay attention when rain arrives.

His most notable partnership to date has been with Pedro The Poet, though the two have yet to get off the mark together across four races. That kind of repeated near-miss with a single horse is one of the quiet frustrations of training — you keep running the same animal hoping the stars align, and so far they haven't. Whether that changes remains to be seen, but four attempts suggests Traynor clearly believes there is a race to be won with this horse somewhere.

At this stage of his career, Traynor is very much a trainer to file away rather than follow blindly. The overall numbers are slim, but every established yard started somewhere, and the soft-ground record hints that he is doing something right when the circumstances are in his favour.