Channon has unsung star

13 April 2012

You don't hear much about racing secretaries. They are the voices at the end of telephones telling you that "the guv'nor" is either in Ireland, out in the yard, on the gallops or at the sales. Their domain is often something that resembles a box room, or, in more palatial establishments, a mini computer laboratory.

They can be charming, or formidable, as the first line of defence for a trainer who doesn't want to speak to an angry owner, a fodder purveyor asking when his bill is going to be paid, or a jockey trying to get on the stable's pride and joy in the last race at Leicester.

An unsung breed, she (the post is predominantly filled by females), must have the diplomacy of a Henry Kissinger, the hide of a rhinoceros, be prepared to work all hours and put up with language that could blister paint off woodwork.

Susan Harding, Mick Channon's right-hand girl, is a mixture of all these.

Besides her administrative skills, the 21-year-old is a useful work-rider and has partnered Queen's Logic - hot favourite for next month's 1,000 Guineas following an impressive win at Newbury last weekend - in gallops.

Harding said: "Queen's Logic got a great reception here on Saturday night after she had won the Fred Darling Stakes.

Everyone here thinks she will take all the beating in the classic. She has eaten up well since the race and looks a million dollars."

She added: "The horse I look after and ride out at home, Kulachi, didn't exactly cover himself in glory in the Greenham Stakes on the same card.

"It was just not one of his days, and the ground was a bit too firm for him. No reason to give up on him, though. He will win his fair share this season - you can take that from one who knows!"

The daughter of Irish point-topoint handler John Joe Harding, and the third youngest in a family of eight children, she cut her milk teeth in County Cork, riding a chestnut pony called Lucky with the Avondhu and Duhallow hunts.

In those days, she never imagined herself working in an office. "I had to be dragged by the ear by my parents to the secretarial college at Mallow. I wanted to be with horses full stop," she said.

After two years at the Rathbarry Stud, Harding moved to England, arriving at Ian Williams's stable and then on to Robert Cowell's Newmarket base.

Realising that if her star was to shine she had to join a larger stable, she wrote to the top 20 trainers, including Sir Michael Stoute, John and Ed Dunlop, Luca Cumani, and Gerard Butler. Most of them replied, but Channon was the only one to telephone and ask her down to West Ilsley to have a look.

"Mick is different in the way he does things. With the twoyearolds it's like being out hunting, going up the gallops in January with the boss, sorting them out from an early stage," she said.

Harding arrives at the stable, near Newbury in Berkshire, at 5.45am, to ride out with the 'first lot' which heads for the Downs at 7.30am.

Later, she deals with making race entries for the stable's runners.

"It can be manic with entries for here and abroad, flying around," Harding remarked.

If you fail to get through to Weatherbys - the Jockey Club agents - by the required deadline, a horse does not run - the ultimate horror for a racing secretary, who then has to face her irate employer.

"Luckily I've never had a cross word with Mick yet," Harding said. "If he has a go at you, that will be it. Five minutes later it is forgotten.

"Mick gives you a chance, as shown by the opportunities he has given apprentice Dean Corby, who won the Rosebery Stakes on Imperial Dancer for us and also looks after and rides out Queen's Logic."

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Channon has unsung star

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