With the Hunter Chase season concluding at Stratford last Friday, the leading trainer during the season was Hannah Roach.
The first season trainer, based in Cheshire, was only 21 when she took over the reins at her yard from mentor Joe O'Shea, who himself was leading Hunter Chase trainer last season.
This year, Roach saddled five Hunter Chase winners at a strike rate of 45%, in addition to two seconds and a third.
Her standard bearer was the improving Iskandar Pecos, who won three such races including the Cheltenham Intermediate Final (pictured above), as well as finishing second in the prestigious 'Walrus' Hunter Chase and 'John Corbet Cup'. The other winners trained by Roach in an impressive debut campaign were Time Leader and Willewonga and she was also responsible for six point-to-point victories.