Channon fumes at deadline stringency

Mick Channon was today fuming over the stringency of the deadline for reserves to take the place of non-runners in races with a 48-hour final declaration stage.

A maximum field of 16 was declared on Sunday for the Tatler Summer Season Stakes at Goodwood tomorrow, plus two reserves – the Channon-trained Flotta and Mark Johnston’s Yoshka.

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This morning Trust Rule was taken out by trainer Barry Hills with a vet’s certificate, but it was just after the 9.30am deadline for the reserves to get in, and therefore too late for Flotta.

That means 15 runners will now go to post for the heritage handicap, reducing each-way betting to the first three home rather than the first four.

Channon said: “Yes, you have to have rules, but sometimes common sense should take over, and this is a case in point.

“You train a horse for a race like this with the intention of running him and you take it on the chin when he doesn’t make the original line-up.

“But then you have to ask the question, when they do something like this, what is the point of having reserves at all?”