Tony McFadden highlights five trainers who weren't involved on Champions Day but have enjoyed tremendous campaigns.
Harriet Bethell
Harriet Bethell continues to do well with her small string and outperform market expectations.
Backing Bethell's runners on the Flat to £1 level stakes would have returned a profit in each of the full three seasons she'd had since returning to the training ranks after suffering a serious injury on the gallops.
Bethell is well on course to post another profit this season as her record currently stands at £13.80 to £1 level stakes. That has been generated from 18 winners from 97 runners at a highly creditable strike rate of 18.6%. That places her among the top 15 trainers based on strike rate (among those with at least 50 runners), while she's among the top ten by the percentage of rivals beaten metric (62.2%).
Her success has attracted the support of The Horse Watchers syndicate whose City Captain has done notably well since joining the yard, winning four times and improving his Timeform rating by 31 lb.
Tony Carroll
Tony Carroll saddled a century of British Flat winners in a year for the first time in 2024 and he replicated that feat by mid-October in 2025. For context, he was one of only ten trainers who reached that landmark by Champions Day.
A blistering start to the year, featuring 22 winners in January, was the key behind another push towards the century; so prolific was Carroll in January that he had twice as many winners as any other trainer that month.
The biggest contributor to Carroll's century was Time Patrol who won five times in handicaps between January and May, including a hat-trick at Brighton. Brighton remains a happy hunting ground for Carroll who, yet again, has been the top trainer at the course. He has had 17 winners there this season, ten clear of the next most prolific, Gary and Josh Moore.
Jim Goldie
Jim Goldie has never had a century of winners in a calendar year but has excellent claims of doing so in 2025 as he's already passed his previous best total (78) and has 87 on the board by mid-October.
It's been a memorable campaign for reasons other than pure weight of winners, however, as Goldie enjoyed his first Royal Ascot and Group 1 success when American Affair landed the King Charles III Stakes.
American Affair is a fine advertisement of Goldie's talents having started last season with a BHA handicap mark of only 70 but found relentless progress. American Affair is the most high-profile recent example of a Goldie improver but is by no means the only one - indeed, Goldie has become associated with horses running up sequences and staying ahead of the handicapper.
No horse has won on the Flat more often this year than Goldie's Jannas Journey, who is one of four who has won seven times. Goldie also trains Oriental Prince and Dwindling Funds who have won six times, while Midnight Lion has five wins in 2025.
TJ Kent
TJ Kent has the sixth best strike rate among trainers with at least 50 runners on the Flat in Britain and Ireland in 2025.
His record of 15 winners from 67 runners, at a strike rate of 22.4%, included a sequence of six successive winners in March and April at prices between 7/4 and 9/1. Unsurprisingly, given such a healthy strike rate, backing each of Kent's runners to £1 level stakes would have generated an impressive profit of £50.55.
He's unlucky that figure isn't even higher as Erzindjan - a newcomer to the stable this season - shaped very well when fourth in the John Smith's Cup at 80/1 and looked unlucky not to win the Cambridgeshire at 28/1 given he stormed home and was well on top of those in his group.
Geoff Oldroyd
Only Charlie Appleby (31.3%) and Paddy Twomey (29.7%) had a better strike rate than Geoff Oldroyd (25%) in British and Irish Flat races between the start of the year and the day prior to Champions Day (among those with at least 50 runners). Oldroyd is certainly keeping good company as Aidan O'Brien and William Haggas (both 24.2%) completed the top five.
Admittedly, Oldroyd's success is based on a much smaller sample than is the case for those powerhouse stables, but a record of 13 winners from 52 runners still entitles him to plenty of credit.
Even Oldroyd's horses who didn't win tended to run well as his percentage of rivals beaten figure of 65.9% places him third behind only Twomey (72.3%) and Appleby (68.8%).
One horse whose performances reflect well on Oldroyd is Air Force One. He proved disappointing for Twomey last season but has shown improved form for his new yard this term, winning a big-field handicap at York in July before producing even better efforts when placed in similar contests.
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