Run The Numbers

As the 2024/25 racing season runs out the clock, it is time for Run The Numbers’ second annual Australian racing’s most improved awards, where we look at which trainers, jockeys and sires have improved their performance the most on the previous season.

While Australia may hold a reputation for its two-year-old racing, the most recent figures point to an ongoing slump in participation, which is having a knock-on impact across breeding and bloodstock. Run The Numbers investigates.

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.

There were four stallions who secured their first Australian stakes winners last Saturday, taking the total number of stakes-winning sires this season to 193. This week’s Run The Numbers looks at the significance of Peltzer’s breakthrough success.

As Australia’s busiest Group 1 racing season came to a close, Tashi became the 57th individual horse to win an elite race in 2024/25, a list which also features 30 trainers and 33 different jockeys. This week’s Run The Numbers breaks down all the key figures.

Chris Waller’s influence on the Australian breeding industry extends well beyond just the stallions he has trained himself. This week’s Run The Numbers digs into the number of winners he has prepared by Australia’s top sires.

Newhaven Park’s Cool Aza Beel became the first sire-son descendant of Zabeel to produce a Group 1-winning two-year-old from his first crop. Run The Numbers looks at the ongoing influence of the Zabeel sireline, as well as a prodigious damline influence in Cool Archie’s JJ Atkins win.