The Champion Stakes at Ascot, the highlight of the track\u2019s Champions Day card this weekend, has barely figured in the official annual assessment of the \u201cWorld\u2019s Best Horse Race\u201d since the prize \u2013 which is based on the average end-of-year rating of the first four horses home \u2013 was first awarded in 2015.<\/p>\n
The 2022 Champion, in which Bay Bridge beat Adayar<\/a> with the previously unbeaten Baaeed fourth, was the runner-up behind Flightline\u2019s sign-off win in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic<\/a> a couple of weeks later, but five of the past 10 runnings have failed to make even the top 10 globally. To date, York\u2019s International Stakes, in 2020 and 2024, is the only British race to finish at the top of the pile.<\/p>\n Ascot\u2019s executives will quietly fancy their chances this year, however, after three of the top 12 horses worldwide at any distance all stood their ground for Saturday\u2019s \u00a31.3m Champion Stakes at Monday\u2019s five-day stage.<\/p>\n Ombudsman, currently top of the global rankings on 128<\/a> thanks to his emphatic success in the International Stakes<\/a> in August, faces a decider in his head-to-head with Delacroix, who beat him in the Eclipse and went on to win the Irish Champion Stakes. But it is far from a two-horse race with Calandagan, the King George winner<\/a>, and Almaqam, the only horse apart from Delacroix to beat Ombudsman this year, also in the mix alongside William Haggas\u2019s Economics, the Irish Champion Stakes winner last year.<\/p>\n The best news of all for racegoers and armchair fans alike, meanwhile, is that the weather forecast remains dry and settled before a Champions Day card that will feature five Group One races for the first time, following the upgrade of the Long Distance Cup from Group Two status.<\/p>\n It is also a seven-race card for the first time this year, following the addition of a \u00a3250,000 two-year-old contest as the opening race, and all five Group Ones received supplementary entries on Monday as owners and trainers were encouraged by the prospect of decent racing ground and, in the case of the three events on the round course, the certainty that there will be no switch to the hurdles track, a last resort that has been forced on the track three times since 2019.<\/p>\n Delacroix, ridden by Christophe Soumillon (left), on the way to winning the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September 2025. Photograph: Damien Eagers\/PA<\/p>\n The Champions Day card this year will be the 15th since the Champion Stakes itself was moved from Newmarket \u2013 amid much grumbling from the traditional wing of racing\u2019s fanbase \u2013 to be the climax of Britain\u2019s richest day at the races, and an equivalent of Champions Weekend in Ireland and Arc weekend in Paris in the nation that gave racing to the world.<\/p>\n It was mightily blessed by the presence of Frankel in both its inaugural year in 2011 and then a year later, when the greatest horse of modern times bowed out in the feature event. There were just two Group Ones on the schedule until the Fillies & Mares event got an upgrade in 2013, and the Sprint became the card\u2019s fourth Group One two years later, but Saturday\u2019s seven-race card is arguably the first with the full range and depth of quality to stand serious comparison with the showpiece meetings in France and Ireland.<\/p>\n And in a good year, like this one, it certainly holds its own. In addition to the star-studded Champion Stakes, the likely attractions on Saturday include Field Of Gold, joint-second in the global rankings, in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and Lazzat, second in the sprint ratings, in the Champions Sprint. Trawlerman, meanwhile, is officially the world\u2019s best stayer this year, and should prove the point in what is, admittedly, a slightly underwhelming six-horse field for the Long Distance Cup.<\/p>\n Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Tuesday racing tipsShow<\/p>\n Lingfield Park<\/b> 1.30 Manila Mist 2.00 Hashtagnotions 2.30 Eternal Solace 3.00 Kilkenny Warrior 3.30 Baikal 4.00 Saxonia 4.31 Spitzbergen 5.05 Forever My Prince 5.40 Hedge Fund (nb)\u00a0 Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n The problem that still faces Champions Day, however, even in what could now be seen as its fully fledged form, is that key factors which determine its year-to-year success are beyond the organisers\u2019 control. It is still sandwiched uncomfortably between the Arc and the Breeders\u2019 Cup, both of which offer significantly high prize money, while the latter event at least comes with an effective guarantee of fast ground.<\/p>\n At Ascot in mid-October, by contrast, 12 of the 14 renewals of the Champion Stakes since the switch from Newmarket have been run on ground with \u201csoft\u201d in the going description.<\/p>\n The Irish Champions Festival in Ireland attracted 20,000 spectators over two days this year, around 10,000 fewer than Ascot will get on Saturday. Yet it remains firmly entrenched on the September weekend that, in an ideal world, Champions Day would probably occupy, giving owners the chance to run at Ascot, Longchamp and then the Breeders\u2019 Cup.<\/p>\n Fair play to Ireland \u2013 they got there first. But it is also another reason why we should appreciate Saturday\u2019s exceptional Champions Day programme all the more \u2013 because it could be a long wait before the stars align in quite the same way again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Champion Stakes at Ascot, the highlight of the track\u2019s Champions Day card this weekend, has barely figured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-497428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115369653314042821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Leicester<\/b> 1.44 Supreme Dancer 2.14 Storm Esme 2.44 Figjam 3.14 Amused 3.44 Song N Dance 4.14 Platinum Prince 4.44 Sixtygeesbaby (nap) 5.15 Guinness Lad\u00a0
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Market Rasen<\/b>\u00a01.51 Un Sens A La Vie 2.21 Country Park 2.51 Indemnity 3.21Tankardstown Diva 3.51 Lunar Discovery 4.21 Independent Jimmy 4.55 Luna Grace\u00a0
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Newcastle<\/b>\u00a04.50 Alobayyah 5.25 Up The Jazz 6.00 Starmade 6.30 Fizzy Cristal 7.00 Rain Cap 7.30 Medway Queen 8.00 Raatea 8.30 Second Fiddle<\/p>\n