Latest News
FEB
LAUGH OUT LOUD WINS IN STYLE AT KEMPTON TO OPEN HER ACCOUNT
Just shy of a month after an arguably unlucky racecourse debut at Wolverhampton, LAUGH OUT LOUD lost her maiden tag at Kempton Park on Thursday evening.
Owned by Ann Black, Mohammed Al Qatami & Khalid Al Mudhaf, the daughter of Clodovil came into the mile maiden as a warm odds-on favourite, with her head defeat by Roedean a month earlier representing solid form.
Indeed, it was a facile first victory by an impressive ten lengths over a spread-eagled field that allows Mick and his enthusiastic owners the chance to plot mixing it in far loftier company in the coming months.
The Boss watched on from Dubai but was suitably impressed.
"She's a nice filly who we just couldn't get started on last year for a variety of niggling problems. We decided to finish early with her and she's come back the better for it.
"She's not missed a day and we've had a good run at her which left me feeling that her Wolverhampton race would see her win first time up. She was sent quite wide that day, so there was reason to think that she was unlucky and now she confirmed her promise with such a convincing win.
"Ann, Mohammed and Khalid have enjoyed some great days with their fillies - Ann with our Cherry Hinton winner Please Sing and we were successful with Mohammed and Khalid's Lahaleeb at the top level, so we obviously want LAUGH OUT LOUD to provide us with more of the same!
"We'll have a chat about things next week but you wouldn't rule out considering a trial for the Guineas at this stage. Whether that's realistic only time will tell but she's done everything asked of her up to this point and we need to find out what we've got on our hands. We've always liked her so it will be interesting to see how much she'll improve for this week's success."
FEB
Cathy Gannon aboard Petaluma at West Ilsley this morning.
GANNON BACK IN THE SADDLE AT WEST ILSLEY
It's been a while, but we're delighted to have Cathy Gannon back with us this week as she begins her comeback after breaking her right femur in a fall at Nottingham back in October.
Having enjoyed a break in Jamiaca, she returned on Monday to ride two lots each morning and watch the two year-olds put through the starting stalls for the first time in the indoor ride. She received plenty of stick for sitting that bit out, although the first few days saw her suitably out of breath to make her fitness level a convenient excuse.
As ever, Cathy will be back with us on work mornings as we build towards the coming turf season and we'll be using her as and when her numerous commitments to seemingly hundreds of other trainers allow!
She's had a good week so far:
"I live just down the road in Wantage and it's good to be back on a horse and among the lads again. I've been off for a long time so I felt it for the first few days but that's only to be expected. The bad weather means we've just been trotting in the indoor school this week, but that suits me just fine at the moment.
"It might sound daft, but if I had to get injured I suppose the back end of the turf season was the best time for it to happen as I can concentrate fully on getting right just before the start of the coming turf campaign. That's a realistic target and I'll hopefully come out firing.
"I had my most successful season so it was obviously a bitter disappointment to have such a bad break, but I've kept in touch with all those who have given me such great support since i arrived here back in 2006.
"As I step up my fitness, I'll be riding out for as many trainers as I can and hopefully the upward curve can continue. I've increased my number of rides and winners year on year and the quality of horses I've been getting on have also improved. I can't wait to get going again."
FEB
Dr Marwan Koukash's GABRIAL'S BOUNTY - A winner at Wolves yesterday
GABRIAL'S BOUNTY CONTINUES HIS UPWARD CURVE WITH VICTORY AT WOLVERHAMPTON
GABRIAL'S BOUNTY recorded his second career win in the space of three weeks with a hard fought success in the hands of Stevie Donohoe at Wolverhampton last night.
The odds on favourite was a little slow into his stride in the six furlong, Class 5 contest and despite being forced very wide around the home turn, battled on gamely to prevail over Hughie Morrison's Abi Scarley.
Mick was pleased enough.
"He's a real trier and has shown us that he's going the right way although he thought he'd got the job done when he hit the front and Steve had to convince him all the way to the line. He's still learning the game though and his confidence has soared since his win at Kempton last month.
"Marwan (Koukash) has plenty of runners all over the place and has had a successful time of late, so we've done our bit to keep the ball rolling for him.
"He's a terrific sport with a similar outlook on campaigning his horses as me and let's hope that GABRIAL'S BOUNTY can continue to improve for him."
FEB
JABER ABDULLAH'S GOOD OF LUCK MADE A PLEASING WINNING DEBUT AT LINGFIELD YESTERDAY
GOOD OF LUCK ROMPS HOME ON DEBUT AT LINGFIELD
A satisfying afternoon at a frosty Lingfield Park yesterday saw three year-old colt GOOD OF LUCK take the mile and a quarter maiden under Chris Catlin in taking fashion.
The son of Authorized was always a longer term project amongst last years crop of West Ilsley juveniles and might well make into a decent middle distance prospect for the 2012 turf campaign.
The race was dominated by relative newcomers in the betting and that proved to be the case as GOOD OF LUCK tracked the favourite Scatter Dice before making his move turning in and showing a decent turn of foot to storm home in impressive style by just under four lengths to Gabrial The Hero.
A job well done it seemed until the front pair prepared to turn back towards the winners enclosure on pulling up. Somehow they got too close to each other with the David Simcock trained runner up lashing out with both barrels in an alarming looking incident. Miraculously, it appears that GOOD OF LUCK was indeed lucky to have escaped the full force of the blow and seems none the worse for it this morning.
That aside, Mick was pleased with the performance.
"He just needed to go and do that because we've always liked him. He's a big ungainly horse still and that was why we held him back last year. I don't want to get carried away - he might have a Derby entry but so do about 500 others! Plenty of our owners make the entry at the three hundred quid stage rather than the £8k that it would be this year. So lets put that one to bed for a kick off.
"It might be a good entry, but he's just won a little race at Lingfield for now. We needed to get him started as he had no race experience until yesterday and we'll let him dictate where he goes next.
"He was green before and during the race but it'll put him in good stead for the season ahead. It would be nice to have a decent middle distance colt to look forward to in 2012."
JAN
TWO YEAR-OLDS ON PARADE - GALLERY PHOTOS NOW ONLINE - JANUARY 2012
There are a selection of our our two year-olds cantering up Hodcott Down throughout this month.
We had hoped to have more up by now, but a combination of dreary weather and the absence of a photographer who knows what she's doing (Sue Huntingdon) has meant that we are a held to ransom by certain parties!
They are all on the Gallery Page.
http://www.mickchannon.tv/admin/editGallery.php?id=25
JAN
Marwan Koukash's GABRIAL'S BOUNTY (Photo May 2011), a winner at Kempton last night.
GABRIAL'S BOUNTY RECORDS WEST ILSLEY'S FIRST VICTORY OF 2012
A solid start to our domestic flat campaign in 2012 has heralded a 50% strike rate so far, albeit from only two runners - and that's only one horse. Still, the stats don't lie.
Marwan Koukash's GABRIAL'S BOUNTY kicked off with a solid run at last week finishing runner up to a well fancied runner in a maiden over six furlongs at Kempton. He went one better last night over the same course and distance in handicap company, prevaiing by a length and three quarters in the hands of Franny Norton.
He seemed to be a bright prospect at the start of last season's two year old campaign, but a series of niggles postponed his debut until September, and in truth, the penny was somewhat slow to drop.
He appears to be a different prospect in 2012 though and last night's winning performance was pleasing for several reasons as Mick was keen to point out.
"Gabrial has been a bit of a long winded project and Marwan deserves plenty of credit for having patience with us. He was a smasher at the start of last season but he grew on us and suffered all the sort of niggly issues that can accompany young horses.
"Since we've had our own way with him though he's proved to be a very straight forward character to deal with who only wants to please.
"We tried to use our stall 1 draw last night but as ever with Kempton, everyone scrambles for a position early and he was bumped twice before the turn but didn't shirk the issue. Once Franny had the horse under him turning in he seemed in control and he hit the front two out and that seemed to be that. He just idled though and Franny had to get after him and he did it cosily enough in the end.
"What I'm saying is he learnt a hell of a lot and still came out on top so we'll see where we go from here. Tomorrow night at Wolverhampton might come a too quick after Wednesday, but that won't be the end of the world.
"We may step him up to seven, but he's handy enough over six so there are options and we'll see what the handicapper does to us."
JAN
THE FIRST TWO YEAR OLD VIDEOS OF 2012 NOW UPLOADED
The education continues after a week when the babies will have learnt more than they will for a long, long time. It was more like kite flying weather at the beginning of the week, but they all made it back in one piece as the highest point in Berkshire took a real hammering from the elements.
West Ilsley can go from Baltic to fantastic in the space of 24 hours and that was certainly the case this morning.
All of our two year olds took to the grass and the Gallops page has a selection of some of them. We'll do our best to catch those missing on film in the coming weeks.
DEC
THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST SEES MICK, KEV & ELTON SING THE BLUES
A bizarre e-mail alerted us to the presence of a rather laid back Mick in festive spirits with Kevin Keegan and Elton John back in 1976.
http://www.itv.com/sport/football/archive/classic-video-kevin-keegan-gets-all-christmasy-29047/
Enough said really.
DEC
YEARLINGS ON PARADE - GALLERY PHOTOS NOW ONLINE
Just a quick word to say that the potential stars of 2012 were captured on camera by Sue Huntingdon on Tuesday Morning.
The vast majority of the colts and yearlings are cantering up the grass on Hodcott Down now - feel free to have a look for yourselves.
It's a little hit and miss, but as we build up our photo library, each and every individual should make it on to the Gallery in time!
http://www.mickchannon.tv/page/gallery
Alternatively, you can follow our progress on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mick-Channon-West-Ilsley-Stables/144823345582075
Or there is the occasional piece of wit and wisdom from Mick on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/Mick_Channon_TV
He basically shouts, "Twit That!" [sic] and we either do so because it's hilarious, or pretend to do so but don't because it's invariably going to cause legal wranglings that are simply not needed.
Occasionally he's sensible.
DEC
NATALIE EVERALL AND BARISTA LEAVE THE SCHOOL AND HEAD FOR HODCOTT DOWN GALLOPS
NAT IS BACK - NATALIE EVERALL IS BACK IN THE SADDLE
To those of you close to the yard, you are probably aware of the fact that our Head Lass Natalie Everall was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash last April. She was airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where she remained in intensive care with head injuries and what can only be described as a bashed up body for a further three weeks.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Natalie's recovery was thought to be a long term process, with 2011 a complete write off.
Medical experts shouldn't write off a farmer's girl from Herefordshire though!
Natalie returned to West Ilsley in October - baby steps at first, but it was a reappearance that has confounded those in the know and all of us who visited her at the J.R back in the Spring.
She's working away in the yard and since her comeback she's improved beyond belief. So much so that she made her first appearance on Hodcott Down this week on horseback.
The perfect partner was found in BARISTA, a super ride, and all he needed was a routine canter. This was achieved with ease, by "Barry" not Natalie, who confessed to being, "Bloody knackered".
A KNACKERED NAT AT THE TOP OF HODCOTT DOWN
It's a soppy story we know, but a major personal triumph for someone who we were all worried sick about - in the strongest possible way.
Well done Natalie, we've put you down for four lots in the morning!