In the space of one season, Bjorn Baker had gone from a bit-part player in Australia’s juvenile ranks to the leading two-year-old trainer in the country. The changing state of the two-year-old training ranks is front and centre in this week’s Run The Numbers.
Being a top stable doesn’t necessarily translate to dominance of the more specialist art of preparing two-year-olds.
Not one of the current top 10 trainers in the country won a juvenile Group 1 race this season. Of the 72 two-year-old stakes races contested so far this season, only 28 have been won by the top 10. In terms of overall two-year-old races, those top 10 have won 126 of 543, or 23.2 per cent.
The biggest improvement of any one trainer in this regard came from Bjorn Baker with 15, 10 more than he posted last season.
What is also significant for Baker is that he has compiled more two-year-old earnings this season than any other trainer with $3.9 million, an amount helped along by both O’ Ole and Within The Law, both of which are by first-season sires.
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