With the National Hunt season now up and running, this Saturday sees the penultimate Group 1 meeting of the 2025 Flat campaign.
Newly expanded to seven races, the Qipco British Champions Day card is bookended by a new two-year-old race and the popular Balmoral Handicap. Sandwiched in between are no fewer than five Group 1 contests, offering valuable prizes for the leading stayers, sprinters, milers, and middle-distance stars.
The most valuable pot of all awaits the winner of the meeting’s signature event. Offering £1.3 million in total prize money, the Qipco Champion Stakes boasts an outstanding roll of honour. Focusing on the 21st century alone, the prestigious contest has fallen to Frankel, his full brother Noble Mission, Cracksman (twice), and French superstars Almanzor and Sealiway.
Always a race to savour, the 2025 edition has all the ingredients of a classic instalment. With the days counting down to the race, the current field includes Ballydoyle and Godolphin superstars, a major threat from France, and a forgotten horse from the yard of William Haggas.
Ombudsman vs Delacroix Round Three
The sight of the boys in blue of Godolphin locking horns with the Coolmore operation has captivated racing fans for decades. Winning all five Classics between them, the two powerhouses have been in dominant form in 2025.
Neither Godolphin’s Ombudsman nor Aidan O’Brien’s Delacroix features on the list of Classic winners for this season. As a four-year-old, the John and Thady Gosden-trained Ombudsman has a legitimate excuse, while Delacroix disappointed when only ninth in the Derby. However, the duo have provided one of the most compelling head-to-head rivalries of 2025.
Delacroix won the first round when coming from an improbable position to run down Ombudsman in the Coral-Eclipse – a race John Gosden suggested was “messy”. The result was rather different next time in the Juddmonte International, as Ombudsman produced a brilliant finishing effort to score by three and a half lengths from Delacroix – a race O’Brien labelled “a mess”.
With the score locked at one apiece and connections dissatisfied, the racing world clamoured for a decider in the Irish Champion Stakes. Aidan O’Brien did his best to lure Ombudsman across the Irish Sea, but John Gosden resisted, opting to keep his star fresh for this race. In Ombudsman’s absence, Delacroix strolled to a comfortable success.
Rumours began to circulate that Delacroix would head into retirement following the Irish Champion Stakes – depriving fans of a conclusive third clash with Ombudsman. Happily, it now appears that won’t be the case, with Delacroix receiving the green light for this Ascot assignment.
Godolphin, meanwhile, are seemingly leaving nothing to chance. Having deployed a pacemaker to good effect in the Juddmonte International, the owners have stumped up £75,000 to add Devil’s Advocate to the Champion Stakes field.
Calandagan to Keep Good Times Rolling for Graffard?
Fresh from his first win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Francis-Henri Graffard sends Calandagan back to the scene of his King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes success.
Sporting the same Aga Khan Studs silks as Arc winner Daryz, Calandagan was ineligible for that Longchamp event due to his status as a gelding. There are no such restrictions in place in the Champion Stakes, allowing the son of Gleneagles to tackle the race for a second time.
Sent off as the 6/4 favourite in 2024, Calandagan mastered main market rival Economics but had no answer to the relentless finishing effort of Anmaat, who got up close home to cause a 40/1 upset. One year older and stronger, Calandagan bids to join Brigadier Gerard as the only horse to win the King George and Champion Stakes in the same season.
Upturn in Fortunes for Economics?
Ed Walker’s Almaqam is another to note, having beaten Ombudsman in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes and skipped the Arc in favour of a shot at this prize. However, the most intriguing entry is the horse who started at just 2/1 for the 2024 edition of this event.
Entering 2024 with only a novice defeat to his name, Economics rose from winning a maiden at Newbury to Group 1 success in the space of only four starts. Having outduelled Auguste Rodin in the Irish Champion Stakes, he fell below those levels when finishing sixth in this event. Found to have bled from the nose during the race, he hasn’t been seen at the track since.
Having suffered a setback ahead of Royal Ascot, it was starting to look like we wouldn’t see the Night Of Thunder colt until 2026. However, following a successful racecourse gallop at Newmarket, Economics is on course to make his return in a red-hot Champion Stakes.
The presence of such a talent adds significantly to the closing months of 2025; however, mastering three of Europe’s leading colts following a 12-month absence is a tall order. That fact wasn’t lost on Haggas, who stated:
“I’m delighted with him, but I think it’s an impossible task.”
Will we receive a definitive answer to the Ombudsman vs Delacroix question? Can Calandagan go one better? Or will Economics achieve the “impossible”? The 2025 Champion Stakes is a race not to be missed.