Jack Channon preparing Ferrous and Sarab Star for Good Friday action at Newcastle

The Berkshire-based trainer struck gold with Urban Lion and Mezcala in the two major mile handicaps on the opening day of the British Flat season on Town Moor and reports his Good Friday contenders Ferrous and Sarab Star to be in great shape for the six-furlong Midnite All-Weather Sprint Handicap.

Sarab Star was beaten half a length by Mount Athos on his first run of the year over seven furlongs at Kempton earlier this month (replay below) and is expected to have sharpened up for the outing ahead of his principal target on the All-Weather Championships Finals Day card.

The trainer said on Sky Sports Racing: "They're both all set to go, they worked great this morning. Serab Star is a very lightly-raced horse. I've made no bones about it, I think he's a very, very talented horse.

"We felt that over the winter he showed a hell of a lot of speed and Eddie (Greatrex, jockey) was pretty adamant that day (when successful at Wolverhampton in November) that you could drop him back to six on a straight track like Newcastle. So it's been the plan since that day, to aim him at Newcastle.

"Obviously, the other day at Kempton, we decided to drop him in behind Mount Athos, more so with this race on Friday in mind, we were only two weeks out and I didn't want him to have a burn-up with Mount Athos two weeks out and leave his race at Kempton.

"So the thought process is that the stiff six will suit him. He has a hell of a lot of speed, this horse, but he also stays well. I think seven furlongs is a fine trip for him but I think to be a good six-furlong horse, you've got to be able to stay seven. So we're very positive that he's got the speed to be able to travel with them, it's whether he's got turn of foot to go and win a race like this. But he's in great form and we're very excited to run him."

Ferrous has won five of his 11 starts on the all-weather and has also been in good form lately, finishing a neck second at Lingfield in February before being beaten just a couple of lengths over a longer trip at Wolverhampton last time.

Channon explained the campaigning of his six-year-old grey: "He ran a cracker in the Kachy (Stakes, Lingfield) on his first run back this year, and then he just got pipped in a handicap about a month later and ran a great race. And we had to run him in the Lady Wulfruna just to qualify him for Good Friday.

"He's a six-furlong horse, a stiff six suits this horse well. He's won over course and distance at Newcastle last year off 102. He's up to 105, but he is a very high-class, proven all-weather weather horse and he'll be dangerous to anyone on the day. He seems to be in great form."

As for Lincoln hero Urban Lion, another shot at the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot - in which the horse finished fifth to My Cloud last summer - could be in the offing.

Channon said: "He's always been a good horse and he was a bit unlucky in a couple of those big handicaps last year. If I'm honest I thought he we'd got unlucky again, I thought we'd been beat, the second horse has picked up really well and looked like he had us beat but to be fair to Eddie he got his head down on the line and we've come out on the right side of things.

"The straight mile really helps him as he is a really big horse. He's probably just matured fully over this last winter. The straight mile is what he wants and all these big mile races have always been the plan for him. We tried to set him up for the Hunt Cup last year.

"I think he's probably going to go up three or four pounds for that. We could look at the Spring Cup at Newbury and obviously the Hunt Cup again will obviously be on the radar for him but you're starting to creep up in the weights and we might have look at a Listed race for him somewhere. As I said to the owners, he might struggle to win again this year, but I don't think any of us will mind that much. To bag a big one like that makes any horse's season."

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