Search trainers

GET /v1/trainers/search

By name.

Available on

Free key 24h – 7d

Live today + 3 days

Archive back to 2017

Complete 2017 → upcoming

Complete + Analyst 2017 → upcoming

Send your key in the X-API-Key header, or as ?key= if your tool cannot set one. A date outside your plan's window returns 403 outside_window naming the window, never an empty array.

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
q	query	string	yes	At least two characters, matched against the name. A prefix match sorts above a match in the middle.
limit	query	integer	no	1 to 100. Defaults to 25.
cursor	query	string	no	Opaque. Pass next_cursor from the previous response.

Request

curl https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/trainers/search \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AHR_KEY"

$ch = curl_init('https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/trainers/search');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER     => ['X-API-Key: ' . getenv('AHR_KEY')],
]);
$data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true)['data'];

const res = await fetch(
  'https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/trainers/search',
  { headers: { 'X-API-Key': process.env.AHR_KEY } }
);
const { meta, data } = await res.json();

import os, requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/trainers/search",
    headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["AHR_KEY"]},
).json()

Response

200 OK application/json harvested 8 days ago

{
    "meta": {
        "request_id": "aa5ac0e2693f0d15",
        "data_as_of": "2026-09-12T05:10:27+00:00",
        "plan": "analyst",
        "window": "2017 → upcoming",
        "query": "Nicholls",
        "count": 10
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "trainer_id": "tr_32JDRQG",
            "name": "A Nicholls"
        },
        {
            "trainer_id": "tr_2DFEQD0",
            "name": "Adrian Nicholls"
        },
        "… 8 more"
    ]
}

A real response from /v1/trainers/search?name=Nicholls, captured by calling the live API rather than written by hand.

Response fields

Each field is described once and rendered on every endpoint that returns it, so the wording cannot drift between pages.

Field	Type	What it is
trainer_id	string	Opaque trainer identifier.
name	string	Race title as published, sponsor and all.

Errors this endpoint returns

Code	Status	When
unauthorized	401	No key, or one we do not recognise. Check the header name and that the key has not been rotated from your account page.
invalid_param	422	A date that is not YYYY-MM-DD, a by= dimension we do not have, or a cursor that did not come from us. The message names the parameter.
rate_limited	429	Past your per-minute rate. Retry-After is set, and X-RateLimit-Remaining tells you where you stand on every successful response too.
server_error	500	Ours, not yours. Every response carries a request_id; quote it and we can find the exact request.

Run it live

A real request from your browser straight to api.apihorseracing.com with your own key. Nothing is proxied and nothing is logged by this page.

Your API key

Remembered in this browser so you do not paste it on every page.

limit optional

cursor optional

What this is for

Trainers by name, with runners, wins and the span of their record attached so you can tell a busy yard from a permit holder before you open either.

Names come back as the source publishes them, initials and all. A yard can appear under more than one spelling across nine years, and we do not merge those on a fuzzy match; guessing that two spellings are the same person is how a strike rate ends up describing two different yards.

Common uses

Resolving a name to an identifier

The usual first step before any of the statistics endpoints.

Sizing a yard before you study it

Runners tells you whether a breakdown will support any conclusion. Two hundred runners split seventeen ways is nothing.