Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s<\/a> Delacroix came home in fourth.<\/p>\nGraffard said: \u201cHe\u2019s a fantastic horse, his work coming into this race was incredible and he loves this track.<\/p>\n
\u201cMickael knows him very well and when he got him into stride in the straight, he was so good to watch. Ombudsman was trying to challenge him but he couldn\u2019t get past my very good horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were dropping back in distance today and I think he has been showing he is very efficient over further at a mile and a half this year. I kept him fresh and haven\u2019t been greedy with him and he\u2019s paying us back now, he\u2019s a real star. We all love horse racing and it was a beautiful race to watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we were on the inner course, he had an inside draw and it was very tactical and everything went against us. I was very upset with myself and the instructions I gave the jockey last year, but we know him well now and he\u2019s shown there he is a fantastic horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very stressed before the race as I was unsure what the tactics should be, but it worked out well and it\u2019s easy when you have a champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graffard saddled Daryz to win the Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe earlier this month and he added: \u201cIt\u2019s been a fantastic season and we\u2019ve got some real champions in the yard. We\u2019ve been able to shuffle them around and give breaks to the horses and wait for the right races.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of running in the Irish Champion Stakes or on Arc weekend, he was having a break and the last gallop with Daryz was interesting. When you watch a gallop like that, it is unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always confident he would battle today and when he travels and quickens like he does, the only thing you can say is he is a fantastic horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barzalona said: \u201cIt was a tough race and I\u2019m so proud of Calandagan for showing his best today against the likes of Ombudsman and Delacroix.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Delacroix was in front of me and Ombudsman behind me and when I saw Delacroix was struggling to maintain the gallop, I knew it was then my turn to do my job and when I asked him he picked up very well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could feel Ombudsman coming beside me but I had a lot of confidence my lad would keep going. Once he finds his rhythm he is a very powerful horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his fine October, that included victory aboard Daryz in the Arc, he added: \u201cIt\u2019s not something that will happen every year so I will enjoy it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nemone Routh, French racing manager for the Aga Khan Studs, said: \u201cIt\u2019s been an unbelievable couple of weeks and an unbelievable year really.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so happy to see this horse win like this, he is a very special horse, and to do it over a mile and a quarter now, no one was getting near him today. Mickael said \u2018when I unleash him, no one will overtake him\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe annihilated Aventure in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and has then gone on to win the King George and now this. He\u2019s got the most incredible stride and he can accelerate and he\u2019s so exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will go to the Japan Cup now, we were looking for a prep for Japan and then Francis decided to try to become champion horse here \u2013 I\u2019m pleased we didn\u2019t go for the Group Two tomorrow at Longchamp now!<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a gelding so you will keep seeing him and he loves coming here. I\u2019m sure he will be back here for the King George but then we\u2019ve got Daryz now as well, so it will be interesting.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst we\u2019ll go to Japan and then maybe Dubai and I imagine he\u2019ll keep travelling, but he\u2019s an amazing horse and it\u2019s really exciting to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calandagan was all class to stride to a smart success in the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[10281,17733,1071,79,10649,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-509849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-action","9":"tag-celebration","10":"tag-racing","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-swimming","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115396163920217903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509849","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=509849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}