Four in-form trainers this festive season: 'He's averaging a winner a day' Horse racing is a very competitive sport and finding winners can often be difficult to do. There are some stats that can give you a helping hand however and trainer form is one of them. Yard form can often make a big difference to how horses perform so it’s definitely worth considering. We’ve picked out four of the most in-form trainers at the moment and they could be worth watching over the next week or so. Gordon Elliott Gordon Elliott has continued to fire in the winners since the autumn and already has 122 on the board this season. He’s averaging a winner a day over the last couple of weeks and also landed an across the card four-timer at Leopardstown and Limerick on Boxing Day. Romeo Coolio’s victory in the Grade 1 Racing Post Novice Chase will certainly be good for the yard’s confidence and they also won the Future Champion Novice Hurdle on Saturday, courtesy of Skylight Hustle’s three-and-a-half length victory. Elliott is always a trainer to follow but that’s particularly true at the moment and it certainly helps that stable jockey Jack Kennedy is managing to stay injury-free. Nicky Richards Any strike-rate above 20 per cent is considered healthy and Nicky Richards’ is considerably higher at 29 (at the time of writing). He has had 14 runners in the last fortnight, four of which have won, and that suggests that the yard is in good shape. Richards landed an across the card double on Boxing Day with a couple of nice winners. Gintime managed to come out on top in a Sedgefield maiden hurdle, while Japetus was a comfortable winner of the opening race at Market Rasen. Richards is fairly selective with his runners these days, especially when in good form, so he’s definitely one to keep an eye out for. Paul Nicholls It has been a challenging time for 14-time champion trainer Paul Nicholls and he has had far fewer runners in the last few months than he normally would. Nicholls’ strike-rate is very healthy at the moment however and stable star No Drama This End runs in the Challow. He also had a couple of winners on Boxing Day and Viroflay’s success at Kempton on Saturday would have gone down very well, as daughter Olive Nicholls did the steering. Hopefully the yard can build on their recent successes and the good form can continue. Ben Pauling Ben Pauling just gets better every year and he earned the biggest victory of his career when The Jukebox Man narrowly got the better of Banbridge and Gaelic Warrior in the King George on Boxing Day. There was more to come at Kempton the following day too, as promising novice chaser Mambonumberfive won the Grade 2 Wayward Lad Novices' Chase. Eight winners from 37 runners certainly isn’t to be sniffed at and he’s up to 54 winners already this season. His chasers have done particularly well and he has 31 winners from just 102 runners in that sphere. Further success could be on the agenda for Pauling.
