Who Will Champion the Mud on Ascot’s Champions Day?
Ascot hosts the UK’s most valuable race day on Saturday. QIPCO British Champions Day, a six-race star-studded card, offers £4 million in prize money and features four Group-1 contests. Frankie Dettori is booked to ride in five races; it could be his final appearance on a European racecourse.
Racing is predicted to take place on soft or heavy going. In the opening contest, the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup, neither of the main protagonists, Trueshan or Kyprios, will be inconvenienced by the conditions.
Trueshan, seen landing last year’s Long Distance Cup, will have no issues with the surface in Saturday’s opener at Ascot. ©GettyImages
Things could prove stickier for other runners during the day. Dermot Weld, trainer of the Irish 1000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes and Matron Stakes winner, Tahiyra, has already signalled his concerns about his three-year-old performing to her best on testing ground in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
Bookies Softened up After Round 1?
Naturally, bookmakers will be well aware of the adverse conditions and have priced every runner according to their form merits and potential liking for a soft surface. It is difficult to imagine they will be in front after the day’s first contest. Eight runners will go to post, but the Long Distance Cup appears to be a match race, and the ‘big two’ will attract the bulk of punters’ money.
Kyprios, the 2022 Gold Cup winner at the Royal Ascot meeting, won four Group-1s last season. He has raced just once in 2023, but his second place in the Irish St Leger six weeks ago was the perfect prep for this two-mile contest.
Trueshan has won this race for the past three years. The 15-time winner will arrive at the Berkshire venue in tip-top form, having easily won the Group-1 Qatar Prix du Cadran for a second time three weeks ago.
Horse racing betting sites narrowly favour Kyprios in this intriguing contest. They bet 8/1 bar the two market principles. Success for any one of the outsiders would doubtlessly be a scoop for the bookmakers.
Two Free Chances for Frankie
Frankie Dettori’s best chance of a winner appears to come in the second race on the card, the 1.50 pm, the Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes. The Italian rides Kinross, the horse he partnered to victory in this contest 12 months ago. He has also ridden this six-year-old gelding to success six other times.
America-bound Dettori has a good ride, Free Wind, in the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (2.25 pm). However, apart from the 20-runner handicap that concludes the Ascot card, this appears to be the most competitive race of the day. It is a complex puzzle to solve.
Paddington an Express Lay Not Play
Punters have already ploughed into Paddington in Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (3.05 pm). The Irish-trained horse rattled off a summertime Group-1 hattrick after winning the Irish 2000 Guineas, but he was surprisingly beaten into third in August’s Juddmonte International Stakes.
Nashwa, who finished ahead of him that day, reopposes on Saturday. The French Derby runner-up, Big Rock, is also in opposition. And with star filly Tahiyra receiving three pounds from all rivals, Paddington appears more of a lay than a play at 11/8.
Champion Is a Race Full of Champions
A pair of three-year-olds head the betting for the Qipco Champion Stakes (3.45 pm). The French-trained five-timer chasing multiple Group-race winner Horizon Dore is the narrow favourite. Epsom Derby runner-up and Royal Ascot winner, King of Steel, follows on 4/1.
But this is a quality affair, and the Prince of Wales and Juddmonte International winner Mostahdaf would be generously priced on 7/1 if he takes to the tacky going at the first time of asking.
September Stakes winner and l’Arc de Triomphe sixth Bay Bridge, Pretty Polly winner Via Sistina, and My Prospero – beaten a neck last season’s Group-1 St James’s Palace Stakes – are others in the field that make this a race to savour.
What Is the Best British Champions Day Bet?
Frankie Dettori has enough rides aboard short-priced runners to suggest he should sign off with at least one winner. But the heavens have opened on Ascot, and the history books confirm soft-going is a punters soggy graveyard.
Hopefully, the head is not ruling the heart when suggesting Trueshan will get the better of Kyprios in the opening marathon. Three prior victories in this contest confirm this is his time of the year, and they all came on ground described as good-to-soft or slower.
However, the betting exchanges are the destination ahead of the 3.05 pm, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, where the suggestion is to oppose Paddington. Tahiyra is a formidable improving opponent, whereas the favourite – lining up for the eighth time in 2023 – arrives here following a disappointing effort.
