Steve Dennis marks your card for Ascot’s end-of-season extravaganza on Saturday [Oct 18]
More often than not, the impact of British Champions Day is compromised by testing track conditions, a heavy-ground slog that can blunt the effectiveness of the best horses and lead to longshot winners who aren’t ‘champions’. Not this year.
A prolonged spell of dry weather has provided perfect racing ground at Ascot, and that has resulted in remarkably deep fields for the two feature G1s with all the right names in attendance, plus three more top-level races on a loaded afternoon.
Champions? We got ’em.
And never more so than in the marquee event, the QIPCO Champion Stakes over a mile and a quarter, which brings together three of the best middle-distance performers in the world. It is already being described as a ‘race for the ages’, so no pressure there, but this clash between multiple G1 winners Ombudsman, Delacroix and Calandagan – between superpowers Godolphin, Coolmore and the late Aga Khan – is as hot-ticket a contest as you’ll get.
It’s the third time around for Ombudsman and Delacroix, with the score at 1-1 after Delacroix surged late to beat Ombudsman by a neck in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown, before Ombudsman got his own back when drawing 3½ lengths clear of his rival in the Juddmonte International at York.
The prevailing belief is that Ombudsman – an easy winner of the Prince of Wales’s over course and distance at Royal Ascot – is better suited by a true-run affair, whereas Delacroix has an explosive change of pace that can settle the best races in a matter of strides, as it did last time at Leopardstown in the Irish Champion Stakes.
The presence of a pacemaker suggests that Ombudsman will get the trip he prefers, but the French gelding Calandagan – from the same barn as Arc winner Daryz – will also be helped by a strong gallop given that all his best form is at a mile and a half, including victory in the King George here in July.
Calandagan, beaten only a half-length in last year’s Champion run in a mudbath, will make his play late but may find the specialist ten-furlong horses too sharp to catch.
There are plenty of ‘board horses’ in the line-up who could muscle in at the finish but it’s almost impossible to see past the big three for the win, and Ombudsman can get the job done for trainers John & Thady Gosden.
Off the gold standard
The Gosdens also have the market leader in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile, the highlight of the undercard (undercard is hugely underselling it), but their representative Field Of Gold has fences to mend if he is to justify bettors’ faith.
At the beginning of the summer he was the cat’s pyjamas, strolling home by 3½ lengths in the St James’s Palace over course and distance to assert his position at the head of the rankings. At the end of the summer, though, it was more like a dog’s breakfast as he blew out at 1-3 odds when only fourth in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.
He has been away from the track since then and the ground is in his favour, but his odds are plenty short enough to be taking a chance that he can recapture his best against very strong opposition.
Sussex runner-up Rosallion has a wealth of talent but has been all miss and no hit this year, form figures of 32242 fostering the belief that it might not be bad luck but more of a voodoo curse. It’s plausible that he could nix the hex on the faster ground he relishes, while the grey filly Fallen Angel comes in on a three-streak of G1 wins against her own sex and could well upset the patriarchy now back in mixed company.
Those hunting for a price, though, could do a lot worse than Docklands, who epitomises the phrase ‘horses for courses’ and is comparatively neglected in the market at double-figure odds.
He has run seven times at Ascot and never missed the board, with his three wins including the G1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot when he nosed out Rosallion for the money.
People, Estrange
There is a more open look about the QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (1m4f), in which last year’s winner Kalpana seeks to go back-to-back after a frustrating year of mixing it in open company.
Her best form – runner-up to Calandagan in the G1 King George over course and distance – would be enough here, but she is best suited by soft ground (as it was 12 months ago) and she did not sparkle when seventh in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last time.
The Arc was also the original target for Estrange, and she was well fancied in the build-up before being scratched at the eleventh hour. That could prove a blessing now, for she has not been over-raced this year, and the form of her second place behind Minnie Hauk in the Yorkshire Oaks is gold-plated after that filly’s sterling effort in last-gasp defeat at Longchamp.
Minnie Hauk’s barnmate Bedtime Story is zero-for-six in G1s this season between a mile and six furlongs more, but this distance could be her optimum on the evidence of her third place in the Prix Vermeille at Longchamp two runs ago, while the wildcard Waardah runs for a trainer – Owen Burrows – with an exemplary big-race record and could improve her way into the picture against more battle-wearied rivals.
Try the Bermuda angle
The speed division in Europe this year has been messy, and in the absence of Asfoora (the only horse to win more than one G1) the trend of longshot winners could continue in the big-field cavalry charge of the Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes.
Last year’s winner Kind Of Blue has drawn a blank since then but served notice that he was still a force when runner-up last time in the Haydock Sprint Cup, beaten by Big Mojo, a course-and-distance winner who can be expected to turn in another solid performance.
Royal Ascot winner Lazzat is probably the class act in the field but was disappointing behind Big Mojo and Kind Of Blue at Haydock, while Montassib is as fresh as a daisy after just one start in 2025 but would prefer softer ground.
Lazzat and Kind Of Blue both run in the silks of Wathnan Racing, and the owner has a third wheel in the shape of Flora Of Bermuda, a filly who has been knocking on the door of big-sprint success for so long that she has worn away the paint.
Her G1 record over six furlongs (give or take a few yards) reads 453303, with one ‘3’ coming in this race 12 months ago and another behind Big Mojo at Haydock. Her jockey-trainer combination of Oisin Murphy and Andrew Balding is in red-hot form.
Trawlerman such a catch
The only worm in the delicious apple that is British Champions Day is the fact that the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup over two miles has drawn such a short field, but the pre-eminent stayer Trawlerman, a stablemate of Ombudsman, lifts the race immeasurably and he will be a heavy chalk to emulate his 2023 success in this contest.
He won the Gold Cup by seven lengths at the royal meeting in June and is riding a three-race winning streak into a race against horses he has already beaten comfortably this year.
The only threat may come from the slow-burning Stay True, trained by Aidan O’Brien to be third in the classic St Leger last month and open to all sorts of improvement after just four lifetime starts, while moving up to a distance that should suit him.
• Visit the Qipco British Champions Day website
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