Shimba Hills brought the curtain down on the Flat turf season for West Ilsley trainer Mick Channon by opening his account with a battling victory at Nottingham.

The two-year-old dug deep for Charlie Bishop to hold off Mountain Fighter by a short head in a maiden stakes over an extended mile.

It was a victory at the seventh attempt, and Channon admitted it was long overdue.

“He showed us plenty early on and like plenty of sire Sixties Icons’ offspring , he had enough speed to win over six (furlongs), he said.

“I made the mistake of running him on very fast ground at Chester though, and that jarred him up for a while, so I’m glad he's finally got his head in front.”

Shimba Hills’ success saw Channon end the season with 71 winners and prize-money of £808,844, which put him 24th in the trainers’ list.

Wantage-based Cathy Gannon finished runner-up to Hayley Turner in the Prolinx female jockeys’ championship.

The pair both rode 41 winners, but Turner, who has been sidelined for two months with fractured vertebrae and a chipped pelvis, took the crown with a superior strike rate – on which the title is based – of 13 per cent.