Channon trains his sights on cracking the stock market

DAVID YATES reports on the footballer turned trainer IN the late 1980s when most of his retiring colleagues were taking out licences to run pubs - the traditional mode of employment for former footballers - Mick Channon got one to train racehorses.

This Flat season, his 12th, will be his first at the former Royal training establishment at West Ilsley. The Queen's stables instead of the Queen's Head.

The historic yard, once the home of Major Dick Hern and Lord Huntingdon, can house 125 horses and provides a faithful watermark to the success of Channon, who made his name as an old-fashioned centre- forward with Southampton, Manchester City, Norwich and England.

But, as the trainer who moved from Lambourn over the winter, he's the first to acknowledge the future matters more than the past.

He said: "The place has a tremendous history, but that will not help me - it is how good the horses are now. What it has done in the past won't pay the bills - it is up to us to find the horses.

"The gallops are very similar to Lambourn. What's great is that it is our own - well, it belongs to the bank. Before we were renting a few yards to make it work.

"We had three yards before, but we're all under one roof now, which makes it so much easier.

Now it is all about winning."

Not something that has been a problem in a career for which Channon, in part, has the current England manager to thank. He recalls: "I staggered into racing.

"I was a footballer with a small stud. I bred a few horses - I bred Ghofar and Jamesmead - and one day no one wanted me to play football. A few mates, including Kevin Keegan, said: 'Why don't you have a go?' I had to do something and I did enjoy it - I still do. I prefer to be out with the horses than at parties.

"No one was going to give Mick Channon a chance if I didn't train winners and I am a very lucky lad that we managed to buy some decent two-year-olds and won decent races. We have got better and better horses.

"They have taken a bit of time to come through, but I'm thrilled at what's happened in 10 years."

Two of those "decent races" were Group Ones - the Nunthorpe, won by Piccolo in 1994 and last year's Cheveley Park, captured by Seazun.

As Channon's seasonal totals have risen, he has also polished the quality of horse he trains.

The 51-year-old, now settled in racing's Premiership, will seek to add Classics to his CV after Golden Silca's unlucky neck defeat in the Irish 1,000 Guineas last spring. Such races would also remove the irritating tagging of Channon, who learned his trade with the late John Baker in Devon before spending a couple of seasons working for Ken Cunningham-Brown, as a trainer of two-year-olds and sprinters.

He added: "We hit the post in the Irish 1,000 last year, but the great thing is we have improved our horses. We've improved our individuals and that is what you are trying to do all the time. We started off winning sellers - and we will win them now if we have got to win them - and every year I hope to improve the stock.

"You get labelled, but the first two races I won were a two-miler on the flat and a two mile National Hunt Flat race, and old Danegold wins more two-mile races in a season than most yards do. Hopefully we can move on to keeping a few older horses."

Channon was uncompromising in the penalty area, and he does not tolerate equine Fancy Dans.

He insisted: "I'm a great believer people train horses to their own character. I want them to be tough and competitive and I want them to win.

"They have got to be able to take everything the world throws at them.

When they go to the racecourse it should be second nature.

"We teach them to be competitive and they have got to be able to hack it, and not just have one race every two months - the majority of moderate horses must run 30 times a year.

"The good ones are easy - you make a plan and know where you are going - but I can't tell you where the selling platters are going. I am someone who puts myself under pressure because I like winning.

"That is the only pressure I've got - I get more disappointed than owners - and I don't want to be a good trainer, I want to be a successful one. We're not far off."

Copyright 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.