York Races: Jack Channon looking to maintain good start to season with Gather Ye Rosebuds on Knavesmire

The trainer’s string has caught the eye with some strong early-season form. In the opening months of 2024, he has already posted 18 winners at an impressive 19 per cent strike-rate.

Channon added: “I’m chuffed with the start we’ve made. But a start’s only a start. We want to kick on now and really cement ourselves as having regular Saturday winners.

“But the horses seem in great form and long may it continue.”

Gather Ye Rosebuds steps up in distance and class for a shot at the Group 3 William Hill Brontë Cup at York.

The four-year-old triumphed in Listed company over a mile-and- a- half at Goodwood on May 4.

Now the daughter of Zoffany has been primed for a trip to the Knavesmire and a black type assignment over a few yards short of a mile and six furlongs.

Gather Ye Rosebuds heads the market for the £100,000 feature of a seven-race card and will face nine rivals.

Channon, who trains from an historic base at West Ilsley in Berkshire, said: “She is a very nice filly. Obviously, she won the Daisy Warwick (Fillies’ Stakes) last time, which was her best run to date.

“She looks to be improving. We’re very happy with the way she’s been training since Goodwood and we’re excited to run her.

“It looks like there’s going to be a bit of juice in the ground, which is perfect for her.

“The step up to a mile-six is new but we feel that she stays well and it shouldn’t be a problem.

“She gives me every impression she’ll stay it.

“Her brother Brandon Castle was a good mile-six, two-miler – quite a lot of the family have stayed. I don’t think it should be a problem, but if it is then we can always revert back to a mile and a half afterwards.

“There’s quite a nice amount of races for those mile-six staying fillies and there aren’t many of them about. So, if you do get a good one that stays that sort of trip, it can be quite fruitful.”

York’s first Saturday card of the year gets underway at 1.35pm. The William Hill Bronte Cup is due off at 3.20pm and 35 minutes earlier sees some smart sprinters in action in the £50,000 William Hill Extra Place Races Daily Handicap.

Elsewhere, Charlie Fellowes expects conditions at Haydock to bring out the best in his star sprinter Vadream when she lines up in the Betfred Temple Stakes.

The six-year-old has produced the keynote performances of her career so far when the mud has been flying, with victories in the Bengough Stakes at Ascot, the Cammidge Trophy at Doncaster and the Palace House at Newmarket all achieved on soft or heavy ground.

She notably inflicted a half-length defeat on the reopposing subsequent Nunthorpe hero Live In The Dream in the Palace House at Newmarket last spring – and having come within a head of successfully defending her crown last time out, Fellowes is confident she will make her presence felt on Saturday.

“She normally takes two or three runs to really get into a rhythm, but she’s already run two really good races this spring,” said the Newmarket handler.

“She’s put in two big runs on ground that she’s absolutely fine on, but if you are a mudlark and handle those testing conditions it’s such a big advantage, and it looks like she’s going to get them this weekend.

“She goes there in cracking order, we’ve got a top jockey on board (Danny Tudhope) and when she gets this ground, she is very good.

“It was a massive shame that last year she never got her ground in the big ones. Bar the King’s Stand, we sidestepped all the big ones over five furlongs, which I’m convinced is her best trip, because the ground was just too quick in all of them – the Nunthorpe, the Flying Five and the Prix de l’Abbaye. One of them has got to come up on soft ground this year and if they do, she’ll be very dangerous.”