Fantasy has Channon dreaming

Mick Channon unveiled a potentially top-class two-year-old filly when Fantasy Ridge turned the European Breeders Fund Douglas Maiden Stakes into a one-horse show at Salisbury yesterday afternoon.

Mick Channon unveiled a potentially top-class two-year-old filly when Fantasy Ridge turned the European Breeders Fund Douglas Maiden Stakes into a one-horse show at Salisbury yesterday afternoon.

The daughter of Indian Ridge, partnered by Australian Craig Williams, oozed class when cruising to the head of affairs two furlongs out and romped to an eight-length verdict over S W Three.

And Channon, who admitted having not made any big race entries for the filly, is now eyeing a trip across the English Channel later this autumn for a tilt at the Group One Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp in October. "She's a real athlete as she travels so nicely and then picks up so well," the trainer enthused. "We've always thought pretty highly of her and we very nearly went to Goodwood with her last week. Looking at that she would probably have won there as well. I thought that whatever she does today she will be a better filly next time and we will definitely enter her in the Prix Marcel Boussac and races like that and then see where we go from here."

Channon and Williams had earlier initiated a double when After The Blue collected the H.S. Lester Memorial Challenge Cup Handicap by an easy four lengths from Exile. And evergreen Knobbleeneeze completed a cracking afternoon for Channon in the Apprentice Handicap.