Trainers on The Race Lab

Dan Skelton Is Having His Best Season Ever — And the Festival Hasn't Even Started

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Protektorat’s win in the Premier Chase at Kelso yesterday was the kind of result that barely registers as a surprise anymore. A year ago, Dan Skelton saddled Protektorat to win the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. Now the horse is picking up Listed prizes as a warm-up. Business as usual.

But zoom out and there’s a bigger story here. Skelton’s 2025-26 season is comfortably the best of his career, and there are still four months of it left — including a certain four days in mid-March.

Henderson vs Nicholls at Cheltenham: The Numbers Might Surprise You

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls are two of the biggest names in British jump racing. Both train large strings, both target Cheltenham as the centrepiece of their season. But their recent records at Prestbury Park tell very different stories.

The Raw Numbers (Since 2020)

Trainer	Runners	Winners	Strike Rate
N J Henderson	337	44	13.1%
P F Nicholls	102	5	4.9%

Henderson has been three times more effective at Cheltenham than Nicholls over the past five years. That’s a stark difference between two yards operating at similar levels of resource and reputation.

Trainer Form: Why It Matters and How to Use It

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When a horse runs, most people look at the horse’s form. Its recent runs, finishing positions, the distances, the going. All sensible. But the trainer’s form matters too, and it’s something a lot of punters either ignore entirely or use badly.

The “use badly” part is important. Trainer form is one of those areas where a little knowledge can be dangerous. Knowing that a trainer has a 25% strike rate sounds useful. Knowing that the same trainer has a 25% strike rate from 4 runners (one winner from four) is very different from 25% from 200 runners (fifty winners). Sample size is everything, and most trainer stats you see published don’t account for it.

The Cheltenham Festival Trainers Who Punch Above Their Weight

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 08:00:00 +0000

March means one thing in the racing calendar: Cheltenham Festival. While the spotlight falls on the big yards with their battalions of runners, the data tells a more interesting story about who actually delivers when it matters.

Over the past five years, Charles Byrnes has sent just 16 runners to Cheltenham and saddled three winners. That 18.75% strike rate tops the lot when you filter for trainers with a meaningful sample size. Byrnes does not flood the entry system—he targets. His horses average 15.6/1, so he is not landing short-priced favourites either. These are proper value strikes.