This Saturday is British Champions Day and ITV will be broadcasting all seven races on the card live. The first race is scheduled for 12:55 with the final race due to start at 4:40.
- 12:55 Ascot: Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup – Trawlerman @ 1/2
- 1:30 Ascot: Qipco British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes – Mission Central @ 8/1
- 2:05 Ascot: Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes – No Half Measures @ 22/1
- 2:45 Ascot: Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes – Estrange @ 4/1
- 3:25 Ascot: Queen Elizabeth II Stakes – Field Of Gold @ 2/1
- 4:05 Ascot: Qipco Champion Stakes – Ombudsman @ 7/4
- 4:40 Ascot: Balmoral Handicap – Cerulean Bay @ 9/1
The opening race in Berkshire will be the Long Distance Cup for the stayers. John and Thady Gosden’s Trawlerman is the warm favourite having landed the Gold Cup at the track at the Royal meeting as well as the Lonsdale Cup at York. The Gosdens will also send out Sweet William who finished 19 lengths behind Trawlerman at Ascot but was just 1¼ lengths back at York and who won last time out in the Doncaster Cup.
Next is a new race for this year in the British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes. Charlie Appleby’s Words Of Truth has been victorious in his last three outings, including in the Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury last month. The William Haggas runner, Division, has also won three on the bounce, finishing first in the Rockingham Stakes at York last weekend. At a slightly bigger price, Aidan O’Brien’s Mission Central was unlucky in running when sixth in the Flying Childers Stakes in September.
Race three will be the Champion Sprint Stakes over 6f. Jerome Reynier’s Lazzat won the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes here in June but has come up short in his last two outings. Kind Of Blue won this race last year and Big Mojo triumphed over a number of these runners, including Lazzat, Kind Of Blue and Flora Of Bermuda in last month’s Sprint Stakes at Ascot. Further down the betting, No Half Measures didn’t get a clear run in the Sprint Cup and could be good value to finish in the places.
The Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes has last year’s winner Kalpana at the top of the market but she ran just two weeks ago when finishing seventh in the Arc. Estrange was taken out of that race and could be the better option having last ran in August when second to Minnie Hauk, the Arc second, in the Yorkshire Oaks.
The Queen Elizabeth II follows and we’re backing John and Thady Gosden’s Field Of Gold to get back on track after his Sussex Stakes shock. Rosallion, who was second in that race, Sun Chariot Stakes winner Fallen Angel and City Of York Stakes winner Never So Brave are the most likely to provide a challenge.
Perhaps the highlight of the fixture, the Champion Stakes, will be the penultimate contest of the day. At the top of the market we have Ombudsman for John and Thady Gosden, Calandagan for Francis-Henri Graffard and Delacroix for Aidan O’Brien. In such a high quality race our narrow preference goes to Ombudsman to add this to his Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and Juddmonte International wins earlier in the season.
Champions Day and the live action signs off with the 1m Balmoral Handicap.