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Let's have a Channon thread ....
Mick Channon ready to be a national figure once again - Telegraph
The notion amuses him. “I haven’t got three Flat horses which would get a mile and a half on a bus,” he conceded. “Only about three trainers can win the Derby, because of the pedigrees.”
Warming to the theme he continued: “Youmzain would have handled it [in 2006] but I wasn’t allowed to run him and, after he had won the Voltigeur, I wasn’t allowed to run him in the Leger either so we went to France for a Group Two which was meant to be easier. But he met Rail Link, who won the Arc three weeks later.”
In the circular way that racing works a good few of Channon’s 80 two-year-olds for the Flat season ahead are by Sixties Icon, who won the Leger in Youmzain’s year and who has made such a promising start as a sire, thanks largely to Channon’s faith in him.
But when the entries for the John Smith’s Grand National are announced today Channon’s name will be in the trainers’ column alongside Calgary Bay, one of a dozen horses he inherited from National Hunt trainer Henrietta Knight on her retirement last summer.
She is still heavily involved with the schooling but their relationship is much more than just a marriage of convenience. The Hen and Terry (Biddlecombe) show is over from the public’s point of view but there is plenty of mileage in the sequel, Hen and Mick.
“Going back to Best Mate, she used to use the gallops at West Ilsley,” Channon explained. “She kept a Flat licence and used my stalls, I kept a jump licence and used her schooling ground and it developed from there.
"We get on well and it suits Hen to stay involved. She’s an amazing horsewoman.”
He recalled the story of Halicarnassus, one of his smarter Flat horses. “He was an amazing horse but he could run some real shockers and, before we knew he had a problem with a kissing spine [an equine back disease], we thought he was a thinker and decided to school him over at Hen’s to give him something else to think about.
"Terry and I were sat like two muppets in the car letting Hen get on with it on her immaculate schooling ground.
“Anyway he’s gone up there, he’s smashed three hurdles, gone through two wings and there are hurdles, wings, horses and bodies everywhere.
"We never did run him over hurdles but three weeks later he won a £380,000 race in Turkey so it must have done him some good.”
In some ways having a few jumpers around the place might be seen as a return to his roots. After all, when he was a Southampton footballer he bred Jamesmead and Ghofar.
“I was trying to breed Flat horses,” he said. “And I ended up breeding a Schweppes and Hennessy winner!
"That was not intentional by a long way but what is in racing? I can still hear John Hislop saying that about Brigadier Gerard, that it was all planned, but it’s utter b-------.”
This time a year ago training a handful of serious jumpers was not among his plans, either, but with Loch Ba, Somersby, Calgary Bay, Sgt Reckless, Warden Hill and Viva Steve among others he has the makings of a stronger Cheltenham Festival team than many established jumps trainers.
“Same tools, different sport,” is how he summed it up, surveying a group of raw two-year-olds on Tuesday.
“I enjoy it. Everything with jumpers is so much slower. It’s more about getting into a rhythm, less jump and run, which is what these horses are being trained to do.
“We don’t have many all-weather runners in the winter because we have such a massive turn over of three-year-olds, so this is keeping us occupied.”
Channon is keen for Calgary Bay to have another go at the National after he finished 14th last year.
“He was a bit too keen for the first circuit and always doing a bit too much. He might be better switched off, but on good ground he could be anything.”
You cannot leave Channon without one football question; so what about Southampton’s recent troubles?
“Most big sports – racing’s no different – are governed by the big money,” he said. “An owner buys a good horse, he does what he wants with it. He buys a football team, he does what he wants with it.
"It’s a strange old world we live in but I’m just glad they’re competitive in the top league again.”
The same can be said for Channon: football or racing, always competitive in the top league.
Mick Channon ready to be a national figure once again - Telegraph
The notion amuses him. “I haven’t got three Flat horses which would get a mile and a half on a bus,” he conceded. “Only about three trainers can win the Derby, because of the pedigrees.”
Warming to the theme he continued: “Youmzain would have handled it [in 2006] but I wasn’t allowed to run him and, after he had won the Voltigeur, I wasn’t allowed to run him in the Leger either so we went to France for a Group Two which was meant to be easier. But he met Rail Link, who won the Arc three weeks later.”
In the circular way that racing works a good few of Channon’s 80 two-year-olds for the Flat season ahead are by Sixties Icon, who won the Leger in Youmzain’s year and who has made such a promising start as a sire, thanks largely to Channon’s faith in him.
But when the entries for the John Smith’s Grand National are announced today Channon’s name will be in the trainers’ column alongside Calgary Bay, one of a dozen horses he inherited from National Hunt trainer Henrietta Knight on her retirement last summer.
She is still heavily involved with the schooling but their relationship is much more than just a marriage of convenience. The Hen and Terry (Biddlecombe) show is over from the public’s point of view but there is plenty of mileage in the sequel, Hen and Mick.
“Going back to Best Mate, she used to use the gallops at West Ilsley,” Channon explained. “She kept a Flat licence and used my stalls, I kept a jump licence and used her schooling ground and it developed from there.
"We get on well and it suits Hen to stay involved. She’s an amazing horsewoman.”
He recalled the story of Halicarnassus, one of his smarter Flat horses. “He was an amazing horse but he could run some real shockers and, before we knew he had a problem with a kissing spine [an equine back disease], we thought he was a thinker and decided to school him over at Hen’s to give him something else to think about.
"Terry and I were sat like two muppets in the car letting Hen get on with it on her immaculate schooling ground.
“Anyway he’s gone up there, he’s smashed three hurdles, gone through two wings and there are hurdles, wings, horses and bodies everywhere.
"We never did run him over hurdles but three weeks later he won a £380,000 race in Turkey so it must have done him some good.”
In some ways having a few jumpers around the place might be seen as a return to his roots. After all, when he was a Southampton footballer he bred Jamesmead and Ghofar.
“I was trying to breed Flat horses,” he said. “And I ended up breeding a Schweppes and Hennessy winner!
"That was not intentional by a long way but what is in racing? I can still hear John Hislop saying that about Brigadier Gerard, that it was all planned, but it’s utter b-------.”
This time a year ago training a handful of serious jumpers was not among his plans, either, but with Loch Ba, Somersby, Calgary Bay, Sgt Reckless, Warden Hill and Viva Steve among others he has the makings of a stronger Cheltenham Festival team than many established jumps trainers.
“Same tools, different sport,” is how he summed it up, surveying a group of raw two-year-olds on Tuesday.
“I enjoy it. Everything with jumpers is so much slower. It’s more about getting into a rhythm, less jump and run, which is what these horses are being trained to do.
“We don’t have many all-weather runners in the winter because we have such a massive turn over of three-year-olds, so this is keeping us occupied.”
Channon is keen for Calgary Bay to have another go at the National after he finished 14th last year.
“He was a bit too keen for the first circuit and always doing a bit too much. He might be better switched off, but on good ground he could be anything.”
You cannot leave Channon without one football question; so what about Southampton’s recent troubles?
“Most big sports – racing’s no different – are governed by the big money,” he said. “An owner buys a good horse, he does what he wants with it. He buys a football team, he does what he wants with it.
"It’s a strange old world we live in but I’m just glad they’re competitive in the top league again.”
The same can be said for Channon: football or racing, always competitive in the top league.
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