Latest News

SILVER TOUCH IMPRESSES

MICK has always believed SILVER TOUCH would win some good races and, watching her work this morning, who is to say she can't do the business in the Criterion Stakes at Newmarket? The four-year-old found everything against her when reappearing at The Curragh in a race where the good to firm ground was never going to play to her strengths. Slowly away on that occasion, she stayed in the same place throughout but on Saturday she's set to step up to seven furlongs which is probably her optimum distance. The boss said: "She worked good and could well go to Newmarket on Saturday. She's in such great form that we'll definitely have to take a look. She's scoped clean and the ground will be in her favour." In today's work, Silver Touch tracked ROYAL POWER (Sam Hitchcott) and GO ON BE A TIGER (Tadgh O'Shea), and when Hugh Bowman asked her to pick up cruised up to the latter with her pilot reporting "plenty left".

RAIN CAUSES DELAY FOR JUVENILES

THE inclement weather has brought about a delay in the appearance of some of the nicer unraced two-year-olds. Mick decided not to run both NAHOODH and DREAM SEA in the testing conditions at Newbury tonight and could let them loose at Goodwood next week. He said: "I've never felt we had a superstar amongst the two-year-olds but I was pleased to see at Royal Ascot there is a solid foundation with the likes of Nijoom Dubai and Hatta Fort doing so well. We might lack a Flashy Wings or a Queen's Logic but Nahoodh seems to be doing everything right and I like Dream Sea very much. Zafeen's half-brother ATLANTIC SPORT is coming along nicely and should make his mark later in the summer."

ROYAL REFLECTIONS

MICK is delighted with the overall performance of his Royal Ascot team and especially the two-year-olds. He said: "I was pleased with Ascot overall. The standard of our two-year-olds held-up from Hatta Fort finishing third in the Windsor Castle to Carleton and Silver Guest who acquitted themselves well in the Coventry and Nijoom Dubai whose Albany win was just fantastic. "I wouldn't say this is my best crop of juveniles but there are a lot of nice ones waiting in the wings that should be followed." It will be a busy time on the 2YO front this week and Mick continues: "AAIM TO APPLAUSE is a colt I have a lot of time for and he should go well at Bath on Wednesday while NAWAAFF is entitled to go close at Beverley. ALFREDTHEORDINARY represents a big syndicate of whom Michael (Junior) is one and there'll be a big representation of lads from the Lord Ilsley Racing Club going up there. "Then we've got several entered at Newbury where they will run depending on ground conditions. I'm really looking forward to the July meeting and Goodwood where we'll let some of the other nice ones out of the bag." YOUMZAIN was totally unsuited by the sedate pace in yesterday's Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and the boss added: "It happens in France all the time. They crawl and then sprint at the end which is no good for a horse like Youmzain." Tomorrow i'll be with Mick and Junior on the gallops and selecting the best footage from the action on the summer gallops, so stay tuned.

mickchannon.tv - Developments

Many thanks for all of your feedback about mickchannon.tv throughout our launch week at Royal Ascot. As Neil has already stated there will be many more features coming out of the yard this coming week and our production crew are looking to iron out the many gremlins that haunt all new websites. We are aware that there are many issues that need to be addressed, but having conceived the idea of the site, designed it, produced the videos and launched in the space of ten days - things were bound to be fraught from the kick off! Luckily, our two wins on Friday - despite the fact that hardly any of us backed them saw us all enjoy the week and made everyone's effort worthwhile. Having sent our entire production crew to Ascot however, livers and minds need time to re-address what we have on our hands with mickchannon.tv. It would appear we have created a monster! We had far more hits than we'd anticipated and are moving to another server to supply demand which obviously has had an effect upon the site's performance. Well done to our webmaster Neil who had the unenviable task of pestering Mick everyday to keep us all up to date and please keep visiting the site for more regular updates of both our latest news pages and our video features. Here's hoping that Mutawaajid is a horse to note in the coming weeks!

BADDAM BEST CHANCE TO PUT ICING ON CAKE

BADDAM returns to the racecourse just 48 hours after his seventh in the Gold Cup and is proving uneasy in the market for the Queen Alexandra Stakes. Golden Quest has displaced him as favourite but Mick sees the race as too good an opportunity to miss. He said: "He definitely runs and has come out of the Gold Cup well. He might not be a Group 1 horse, but he is Group class and good staying prizes like this are strictly limited." Fingers are crossed that GRANTLEY ADAMS can transfer his smart homework onto the track in the Wokingham and the boss added: "The way South Cape went through it yesterday we should be all right with Grantley. He's in great nick."

AUSSIE SPRINTER WILL BE FILM STAR NEXT WEEK

MICHAEL Jnr will early next week be cranking-up his tripod and updating the video area of the site with footage of Australian sprinter MUTAWAAJID working on the summer ground. 'Junior', as I shall refer to him from now on!, will also update the Royal Ascot footage and wishes to assure everyone he and his team of techs are not resting on their laurels. Mutawaajid has settled-in well and had his first proper piece of work on Friday, delighting the guv'nor. Mick said: "He's a grand horse to have in the yard. He's still a bit hairy in his coat but he's getting there and we might run him in the July Cup."

FRIDAY WINNERS IN GREAT FORM

MICK is delighted at the way Friday's Royal Ascot winners Nijoom Dubai and Championship Point have taken their races. He said: "Nijoom seems fine and I think we'll give her a quiet two to three weeks and then wind her up again for the Lowther. Championship trotted out great this morning and on reflection the key to his win was being held up plus the cut in the ground which he's always wanted. As he's rated 105 and will go up three or four pounds the route will have to be a Group 3 or Listed race next."

POINT PUTS ICING ON FOURTH DAY CAKE

THE boss was in unstoppable form as he celebrated in the winner's circle following CHAMPIONSHIP POINT's success in the Wolferton Handicap. The colt's length verdict over Heaven Sent completed a double worth 1,275-1 although I very much doubt if anyone in the yard got it. Mick has always had unflinching faith in 'Championship', who though unable to fulfill his early three-year-old potential is now a Royal Ascot winner - a statistic that can never be taken away from him. Mick said: "He was a wreck after last year's Derby. He was pretty badly jarred, which really messed him up. I knew the ground had gone pretty soft out there and we decided to hold him up rather than use him and it worked. I'm delighted for his owner John Livock." John is running out of tennis terms with which to name his horses and the tennis-mad owner said: "I thought Darryll gave him a tremendous ride. I really wasn't expecting that."

TIDE TURNS AS NIJOOM STORMS HOME

NIJOOM DUBAI powered her way into the reckoning for next year's 1,000 Guineas and received a 25-1 quote for that race with sponsors Stan James after her defeat of hot favourite You'resothrilling in the Albany Stakes. Her triumph brought to life what had threatened to be a fruitless week and the boss wore a broad smile when greeting Jamie Spencer on Jaber Abdullah's filly. Mick pointed out that all the juvenile runners had performed well at Ascot after Nijoom Dubai returned 50-1 on the book and more than 73-1 on the Tote. He said: "She's as good as i've got and something had to go right. She's out of a Rainbow Quest mare and her sire Noverre has made a great start to his career at stud. This was the race we had in mind and we were all gutted when the wheels fell off at Folkestone. That race was a total mess and it was a question of holding the faith." Jaber Abdullah must have been born under a lucky star and his good fortune in getting the cream of the West Ilsley crop is legendary in stable lingo. Mick himself couldn't resist a 'jab' at his top man and added: "This looks to be the best two-year-old form around. Jaber's got it spot on again and I don't know how he does it. "I imagine we'll take the Lowther Stakes route, the same we did with Flashy Wings."

VISION GAMBLE GOES ASTRAY

TO add insult to injury our best winning chance MAN OF VISION conspired to beat himself by taking hold of the bridle and pulling Darryll Holland's arms out in the King George V Handicap. The boss said: "Thursday was another bollocks of a day and what happened with Man Of Vision shows you that despite all the planning in the world it can all go wrong through nobody's fault but circumstances. He took a few attempts to be loaded and then he pissed off with Darryll." Baddam ran sufficiently well to finish seventh in the Gold Cup to have Mick considering a run in tomorrow's Queen Alexandra Stakes, although the forecast rain is a concern. Mick went on: "The jury is still out but i'm certainly concerned that the ground might get soft. He didn't run badly yesterday and was just done for a bit of toe. We'll look at the course a the end of today before deciding if he takes his chance." Mick is also worried about underfoot conditions for GRANTLEY ADAMS in the Wokingham. He commented: "He is our big hope for Saturday but he doesn't want any give. I was very sweet on him each-way but it's one of those things. You just have to get on with it." The boss is sending YOUMZAIN to France on Sunday on the express wish of owner Jaber Abdullah who prefers the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud to Ascot's Hardwicke Stakes. He concludes: "It would have been nice to give him some experience of Ascot before the King George but the owner wants to go to France and i'm only the trainer. I hope we get some pace in the race, but I think it's unlikely."