Jack Channon celebrates with Urban Lion after an afternoon to remember

Albert Einstein flop and Jack Channon stable form | Five things we learned this weekend

By Nic Doggett

Horse Racing

Sun March 29, 2026 · 2h ago

Nic Doggett's five things he learned on Saturday including a yard to watch for with horses returning from a break.

Channon hits the target at Doncaster

Sorry for the headline(s), it’s because Jack Channon’s dad Mick was a good footballer you see. I imagine they get fed up of this sort of schtick. What they won’t be sick of – and it is they as Mick still plays a pivotal role at the West Ilsley yard – is picking up big-race prizes, and the stable is proving that it is very adept at readying horses for early-season targets.

Though 2023, 2024 and 2025 all produced similar numbers of winners and strike-rates (49-56 at 14-16%), it’s worth noting that while there was an even spread of winners in 2023, the narrative changed in 2024. The months between February and June produced an average strike-rate of over 20%, while in 2025 that increased markedly to nearly 29%

It’s been a similar story in the early months of this year, punctuated by big-race wins on Saturday for Mezcala in the Spring Mile and Urban Lion in the Lincoln.

Indeed, it looks a conscious effort. With runners returning from a break of 180 days or more, Jack has 17 winners from 68 runners at 25% - his dad’s strike rate was 9.77% after the same absence.

So how can we use this info? A flick back through the yard’s leading lights of 2025 reveals several to look out for over the coming months. Getreadytorumble looked a very fast horse and, having gone close in a three-year-old handicap at Glorious Goodwood, could be a contender for something like the Epsom Dash before heading back to West Sussex later in the year. Such races could also be on the agenda for Queen All Star whose BHA mark of 96 gives her handicap as well as black type options.

Hey Boo, who came to hand early last season and finished second in the Fred Darling at 40/1, looks one to keep an eye on for entries, with races like the Celebration Mile at Sandown (Lights On the last filly to win it in 2022) or Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket appearing suitable. A rung further down the Group race ladder, the Earl of Sefton and the Chartwell (seven furlongs at Lingfield in May) could also be under consideration.

https://www.timeform.com/horse-racing/shop/horses-to-follow

Making better Meydan memories for Asmussen

Clearly, it has been a very turbulent time in the Middle East and the Dubai World Cup card on Saturday came as something of a fillip for the country. But the meeting just didn’t grab me like it probably should, as horses like Ombudsman and Calandagan really should get the pulse racing regardless of location, opposition or winning margin.

Ombudsman’s Dubai Turf success netted connections £2.25m, while the Sheema Classic was worth £2.6m to the Aga Khan’s estate. Both pale into insignificance compared to the £5.2m first prize of the Dubai World Cup; it’s no wonder that Magnitude’s winning rider Jose Ortiz kept looking behind to check that Forever Young wasn’t gaining quickly enough.

The performance of Magnitude deserves most focus, the son of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up Not This Time having only won a claimer at the end of 2024. His progress began under Ben Curtis (yes, that one) when running away with the listed Iowa Derby in July and it's been of such magnitude (ahem) that he was sent off at just 15/2 before his all-the-way win on Saturday. It was retribution for his trainer Steve Asmussen, too, whose Gun Runner was unfortunate to bump into an electric Arrogate when second in the 2017 renewal.

The other good news story from the meeting was the performance of Connor Beasley who won the Al Quoz Sprint on the former Godolphin-owned Native Approach and the Golden Shaheen on Dark Saffron, who was winning the race for the second year in a row. Showcasing his strength in the saddle on both turf and dirt, Beasley’s big-priced, front-running double for local trainer Ahmad bin Harmash thrilled me more than the higher-profile horses/races.

Both Curtis, who made his name with Karl Burke, and Beasley, stable jockey for Michael Dods, helped give the glitz and glamour of Meydan a northern flavour that is rarely seen, and was in contrast to events on Town Moor which saw southern trainers taking home six of the eight races.

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From Connor to Conor

Whilst Beasley was making waves over at Meydan, Conor Whiteley was further advertising his riding skills at Doncaster, firstly when third on Lir Speciale in the Spring Mile, and then when guiding the well-backed Mao Shang Wong to success in the first division of the apprentice handicaps that closed the card.

What stood out most to me was how well the young rider handled the situation when his mount started to hang left towards runner-up Glint of Light once hitting the front. Having come from a long way off the pace, it would have been no surprise to see an inexperienced jockey panic and attempt to correct their mount with the whip, but Whiteley put his down and trusted that the horse’s forward momentum would continue under hands and heels. It did.

The hat-trick-seeking Mao Shang Wong has entries at Southwell on Thursday and Lingfield on Friday, and will likely be popular if taking up either engagement as he would escape a penalty, but his jockey will also be in demand this season, especially before he loses his 5lb claim.

His 11 rides in 2025 elicited one win, three runners-up and three thirds, and he has started 2026 in similarly explosive fashion; 36 rides have produced nine wins alone.

And if you were thinking that you might have seen that hands and heels style before, you might be right; Whiteley is the nephew of Mick Kinane, which means that we have an excuse to re-watch Sea The Stars’ 2009 Juddmonte International win (below). Kinane resorted to the whip just four times that day, despite his mount having a few lengths to find with time running out, and it seems that calmness in the saddle runs in the family.

SEA THE STARS breaks the track record in the 2009 Juddmonte International at York - Racing TV

It’s all relative for O’Brien 'flop'

As a larger gentleman who still tries to keep up with the young’uns at five-a-side football on a Monday night (and then can’t walk for the rest of the week), I emphasised with the plight of Albert Einstein who appeared to be running in treacle behind the admirable nine-year-old Big Gossey in the seven-furlong Gladness Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday.

Following his sixth-placed effort, which saw him pushed out to 16/1 for the 2000 Guineas, his trainer Aidan O’Brien explained: “He's a lot bigger than the horses he was racing against, who are probably 460kg or 470kg. This guy is a monster and being that big in heavy ground is very difficult for him.”

Appearing to carry some condition, and tenderly handled by Ryan Moore once defeat was inevitable, the horse will surely benefit enormously for the run, but he is now a similar price for the six-furlong Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot and, as John Ingles examines in his look at the impact of Giant’s Causeway, there is plenty of speed in his bloodlines, most immediately his five-furlong-winning dam Yet.

The most recent Ballydoyle inmate with a similar profile was the emphatic Phoenix Stakes winner Little Big Bear, who put his 2023 Guineas flop behind him when bouncing back in the Sandy Lane Stakes before finishing a fine second in the Commonwealth Cup.

It’s a little surprising that O’Brien and ‘the lads’ decided not to follow a similar path to Caravaggio, an earlier version of the ‘fastest we’ve ever had’, who was kept to sprint trips after winning the Phoenix, but what is clear - regardless of whether he drops in trip or not - is that you’d be a fool to write off Albert Einstein after one season-opening run on soft/heavy going, especially given the impression he made in two good-ground successes last May.

READ: Giant's Causeway family keeps on giving including Drop Dead Gorgeous, Scandinavia and Calandagan

First Rosebery winner for John but not the Gosden family

Over at Kempton, the class 2 Rosebery Handicap went a little under the radar. The 11-furlong contest has a strong rollcall of winners and had been dominated in recent seasons by older horses towards the top of the handicap. Indeed, the last five winners were rated 95, 96, 93, 105, and 100.

But that changed on Saturday with the four-year-old Gamrai going two places better than the same owner’s Intinso had managed 12 months earlier.

Trained by John and Thady Gosden, whose father/grandfather Towser won the race with Damredub in 1962, the Gamrai was rated 88 here but such was the manner of his three-length success – on his first start since a winter gelding operation – that bigger and better things surely await.

The handicapper will have no choice but to react in stern fashion, but Gamrai is closely related to the Duke of Cambridge Stakes winner Aljazzi and, assuming that he is a changed horse now gelded (didn’t go on from an emphatic reappearance win last season), he could easily take in another high-profile handicap before moving into Group company.