Timeform's John Ingles highlights the trainers with the best strike rates in the early weeks of the Flat season.
The following trainers had at least 20 runners and a minimum 20% strike rate between Saturday 26 March and Sunday 17 April.
CHARLIE APPLEBY
33 runners, 16 winners: 48.5% strike rate
No trainer has made a finer start to the turf season than Charlie Appleby who has sent a clear message that he won’t be letting go of the champion trainer title that he won for the first time last season without a fight. In particular, the Godolphin team had spectacular success at the main Craven and Greenham meetings last week. At Newmarket, five of their nine runners were successful and at Newbury they won five of the six races they contested, with the first two in a couple of races.
Two of last week's winners were four-year-olds, with last season’s 2000 Guineas runner-up Master of The Seas looking a candidate for top miling honours this year after returning in the Earl of Sefton Stakes, while Modern News could be destined for better things than handicaps now after his smart performance in the Spring Cup at Newbury.
But it was the overall strength of the Godolphin three-year-olds which was most evident at Newmarket and Newbury. Chief among them was last season’s champion two-year-old Native Trail who showed he had trained on well when outclassing his rivals in the Craven Stakes and shortening in price as favourite for the 2000 Guineas in which Free Handicap winner New Science is also entered. Another classic trial, the Fred Darling at Newbury, went to Wild Beauty who has the option of the 1000 Guineas or the French equivalent.
In addition to those three-year-olds, who had already shown lots of ability last year, Appleby also unleashed a succession of promising winners who were either lightly raced or were making their debuts. Dante and Derby entry New London made it two out of two with a smart novice win at Newmarket, while at Newbury Walk Of Stars, entered in the same two races, won the mile and a quarter conditions race which stablemate Hurricane Lane won last year before following up in the Dante. Also at Newbury, newcomers Natural World and Ottoman Fleet fought out the finish of the eleven-furlong maiden, while Oaks entry Life of Dreams looks capable of going on to much better things after her successful debut in the fillies’ maiden over a mile and a quarter.
JOHN BUTLER
20 runners, 5 winners: 25%
With 19 winners on the board already this year, John Butler is more than halfway past his total for the whole of last season. And that’s with a current strike rate of 25% that far outstrips the yard’s success rate of recent campaigns. Three-year-old gelding Solanna completed a hat-trick in handicaps when successful at Nottingham on Easter Saturday to give the stable its first win of the year on turf, having won twice previously at Kempton. Solanna formed part of a Kempton double for the yard at the end of March and stablemate Nationwide pulled off a 50/1 shock in a novice at the same track a week later on his first start since being bought out of Sir Michael Stoute’s stable.
GEORGE BAKER
21 runners, 5 winners: 23.8%
George Baker’s 21 wins last season were gained at a strike rate of 12% but his stable is operating at about twice that percentage at the moment after a good spell in recent weeks. Three of the stable’s five winners were having their first starts since the autumn, including Le Forban who dead-heated on his handicap debut at Lingfield and looks capable of better again over further than a mile and/or on a more galloping track. Kempton handicap winner Fat Gladiator looks another of the yard’s three-year-olds open to improvement.
SIMON & ED CRISFORD
23 runners, 5 winners: 21.7%
Simon & Ed Crisford are still awaiting their first winner on turf in Britain this year but they went very close with their very first runner when Saleymm ran well to finish second in the Lincoln. Of the stable’s five all-weather winners, the fillies Eshtora and Night Battle made promising debuts at Wolverhampton and Lingfield respectively, the latter, an expensive daughter of Kingman, most impressive when overcoming inexperience and coming from behind off a very steady pace to win a novice over a mile and a quarter.
WILLIAM HAGGAS
33 winners, 7 winners: 21.2%
Only Mark Johnston sent out more winners than William Haggas last year when the Newmarket trainer finished fourth in the trainers’ championship with a best-ever number of winners achieved at an excellent strike rate of 25%. Haggas hasn’t been far off that percentage in the early weeks of the current turf season. Highlight so far has been smart five-year-old My Oberon’s win in the valuable mile event on All-Weather Finals day at Newcastle. That horse’s half-brother My Prospero was successful on his return at Newbury a day later, while fellow three-year-olds Maljoom at Doncaster, Hello Jumeirah at Kempton and Razeyna, also at Newbury, have all made promising winning debuts in recent weeks, the former going on to follow-up in a warm conditions race on Monday.
IVAN FURTADO
25 runners, 5 winners: 20%
Ivan Furtado enjoyed his best season so far in 2021 with 41 winners, with the highlight being Just Beautiful’s win in the Group 3 Sceptre Stakes at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting. With 17 winners already this year, he’s well on course to beat that total again, five of those victories coming in the last three weeks. All bar one of those five wins came on the all-weather, with the exception being Matchless, successful in a handicap at the Lincoln meeting where the stable’s useful Eagleway outran his odds of 100/1 to finish a good sixth in the Lincoln itself.