It might be selling Bjorn Baker short by saying that he came of age at the top tier of his profession with his magnificent 2024/25 season because he has always been a very good trainer … but let’s run with that for the moment.
The season-to-season stats tell a story.
Take a look at this progression on the metropolitan front.
In the 2022/23 season Baker saddled forty winners from 363 starters at a strike-rate of 11 percent with his runners banking $6 584 725 in prize-money.
In the 2023/24 season there was a quantum leap in Baker’s number of winners with that number more than doubling to ninety-six winners, this time from the increased activity of 624 starters with prize-money lifting to 7 876 675 … a healthy 17 percent increase. The winning strike-rate rose to 15.40 percent.
In the 2024/25 season Baker’s returned ninety winners from 445 starters at a vastly improved winning strike-rate of twenty percent which was easily the best strike-rate on the NSW metropolitan trainer’s ladder. That came with a metropolitan prize-money haul of $19 027 900 at, wait for it, a massive 58.6 percent increase on the previous season.
Those ninety winners saw Baker finish second on the Metropolitan trainers’ premiership … which effectively means he won the race within a race for the first time as nobody gets close to Chris Waller.
While Baker might have been marginally down on metropolitan winners and significantly down in starting numbers between the 2023/24 and the 2024/25 seasons, his star was still very much on the rise … and in a significant way.
The big trick in gaining a secure foothold at the higher reaches of the climb to the top is to develop a stable of real quality thoroughbreds, some of which are capable of landing big, feature race wins and that is arguably the factor that carried Baker to the previously uncharted heady heights that he achieved last season … whether it was a coming of age twelve months or not.
Stefi Magnetica’s win in the $4 million Doncaster Mile … O’Ole’s win in the $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic … Arapaho’s win in the $2 million Sydney Cup … and many other Black Type victories … speak volumes to that point.
Underlining Baker’s current profile is the makeup of the field for the Group 1 Winx Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
The usual suspects are there. Chris Waller has five runners. Ciaron Maher has two runners … and now there is Baker, very much in the mix, flexing his stable muscle with the best in the business.
Baker will saddle three runners in the Winx Stakes … all last start winners.
Arapaho resumes first-up after his last start Sydney Cup win. Robusto steps up in class from his Listed Winter Challenge victory. War Eternal, who saluted at Rosehill last start, completes the armoury that Baker will unveil for the Winx Stakes.
Whether he has the firepower to shoot down the likes of Via Sistina and Fangirl on Saturday remains to be seen, but, with a quarter of the field in the first Group 1 of the season, Baker has already put down a marker for the new season.
Another big season could be on the cards.
