We paid a visit to West Ilsley on Saturday to see how our 2yo Massaat filly was progressing, and spent the morning with Jack Channon and two footballing legends, as his dad Mick was also there, and he was joined at the yard by another ex-footballer turned racehorse trainer Micky Quinn.

Appearance-wise, our filly is still quite “shaggy”. The staff have tried clipping her winter coat a couple of times, but she gets quite agitated as she does not like it at all, particularly when they try to do her belly. She certainly has some spirit!

Obviously, she will shed her winter coat anyway when the weather improves, so she will look a lot better when she goes racing.

More importantly, she is progressing well. Jack is full of praise for her and is taking an interest in her himself. She has been working with his forward group of two year olds, is doing really well, and does everything asked of her on the gallops.

Jack will really kick on in March to get the group all spot on for the start of the season. She should be pretty early, and early May is the most likely time for her debut. He hasn’t ruled out April, but probably not before Easter.