Champions Day falls flat as Baaeed flops at Ascot
The jury will always be permanently out over the decision to move the Champion Stakes from Newmarket and create an end-of-season Flat racing extravaganza at Ascot and label it Champions Day. Unlike Cheltenham at the end of the jumps season which is a genuine championship meeting, the Ascot fixture does not often enough crown the actual champions. Soft ground and the end of a long, hard season too often puts paid to that. Today was meant to be the previously unbeaten Baaeed’s coronation but he could only labour home in fourth in the Champion Stakes with his jockey blaming the testing conditions which can so often prevail at Ascot at this time of year. The horse is now destined not to be talked about in the rank of the “equine GOATS” but maybe we’re being too insular as there is another unbeaten horse in the shape of Flightline over the pond ready to strut his stuff, on ITV too, when the Breeders’ Cup rolls into town next month.
I have a feeling that this time next year we will be talking about a jockey rather than any horse after the revelation in this morning’s Sun newspaper that Frankie Dettori is likely to retire at the end of the 2023 campaign. He had a double today and the bookies were quaking before Inspiral’s poor start in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes effectively ended his chances of a treble. Dettori would no doubt like nothing better than to bow out at a track where he became a legend when going through the card in 1996. Dettori lit up Ascot today and let’s savour his presence on the track while we can.
Updated
Balmoral Handicap (4.40pm) result
1 Shelir (Jason Watson) 80-1
2 Sweet Believer (A J Farragher) 8-1
3 Tacarib Bay (P J Dobbs) 16-1
4 Safe Voyage (Hollie Doyle) 28-1
20 ran
Also: 9-2 Fav Bashkirova
Balmoral Handicap (4.40pm)
And they’re off … Blue For You is prominent … Bashkirova is well back … Magical Morning leads at halfway … very bunched up … Symbolize takes the lead but Sweet Believer and Shelir come through with Shelir getting the better of the duel at the remarkable odds of 80-1.
Updated
Quick report on the big race of the day is here …
With that victory in the Champion Stakes it’s looking like Charlie Appleby has the trainers’ title in the bag. He has £5,959,449 as against £5,580,744 for William Haggas with few big prizes left.
Brilliant season for William and Maureen Haggas,
— Joe Porter (@JoePorter1990) October 15, 2022
They look like coming up short in trainers title battle but been a fabulous season for the team 👏
Updated
Today was so much about Baaeed and there’s inevitably a feeling of deflation after the horse has lost his unbeaten record. Some would argue that great horses can win on any ground but this day is often on run on testing ground, as Greg Wood pointed out: “Just two of the 11 Champions Day cards to date have been run on the good-to-firm going that most tracks aim to provide on the Flat, while the other nine have all been staged on soft or good-to-soft ground.” It’s in the past now but the Champion Stakes used to be run at Newmarket as some have noted.
There’s a reason the Champion Stakes in mid October was traditionally run at Newmarket… https://t.co/1XBsoIfjdT
— Tony Coleman (@RuaTrindade) October 15, 2022
Balmoral Handicap (4.40pm) betting
Bashkirova 13/2
Blue For You 8/1
Migration 17/2
Tyrrhenian Sea 9/1
Sweet Believer 9/1
Orbaan 10/1
Tacarib Bay 12/1
Montassib 14/1
16/1 BAR
23 Runners
Full betting at Oddschecker here
Balmoral Handicap (4.40pm) preview
The only handicap on the Champions Day card was the most popular of all with the punters last year, and second-most popular in October in terms of betting turnover behind the historic Ceserawitch Handicap at Newmarket. Such is always the way with handicaps at the end of a big card or meeting, as backers either play up winnings or try to retrieve some losses, and this year’s Balmoral is likely to prove every bit as irrestistible as the 2021 renewal, when the well-backed Aldaary sent many punters home happy. The options and possibilities are, of course, endless, and pin-stickers will fancy their chances as much as the form students, but Symbolize and Astro King are both each-way possibilities with some excellent form on the straight course here, while Blue For You also has plenty to recommend him.
David O’Meara’s gelding put up one of the best handicap performances of the season in the Clipper Logistics over a mile at York in August, and ran to a similar level – without getting any luck at all in running – off today’s mark in a seven-furlong handicap at Ascot two weeks ago. Jason Watson was in the plate there but Danny Tudhope, O’Meara’s number one rider, returns to take the reins today and he deserves very close inspection at around 8-1.
Selection: Blue For You (nap)
Champion Stakes (4.00pm) result
1 Bay Bridge (R Kingscote) 10-1
2 Adayar (W Buick) 6-1
3 My Prospero (Tom Marquand) 22-1
9 ran
Also: 1-4 Fav Baaeed 4th
Champion Stakes (4.00pm)
And they’re off … Baaeed is settled towards the rear behind Bay Bridge and Stone Age leads in the early stages … Royal Champion second and Bay bride third with Baeeed back in sixth … My Prospero is in fourth at halfway … Baaeed is trying make ground … Adayar leads and Baaeed is under pressure and looks beaten … Bay bridge fends off the challengers to win …
Updated
Stone Age (40-1 mind) has got worked up in the preliminaries but Baaeed looks well and his trainer William Haggas says he’s very relaxed.
Adayar is the obvious danger to Baaeed.
🔵 Adayar primed for battle with Baaeed
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) October 15, 2022
Roll on the Champion Stakes in just over 10 minutes... pic.twitter.com/LRg9eZ8mKU
It’s Baaeed time …
As cool as you like...
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) October 15, 2022
Baaeed makes his way to the pre-parade ring at @Ascot 🔵 pic.twitter.com/DtFkD3MTtw
More on Inspiral, who clearly ruined her chances at the start of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Seems it was in the genes.
🗣 "The gates opened & she didn't want to come out."@FrankieDettori on Inspiral whose race 'was done at the start' after she was slow out of the stalls.
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) October 15, 2022
Interestingly, her dam Starscope 'became increasingly tricky' according to @LydiaHislop during her career pic.twitter.com/hHMJYBwwLU
Champion Stakes (4.00pm) betting
Baaeed 1/4
Adayar 7/1
Bay Bridge 10/1
My Prospero 25/1
Dubai Honour 40/1
Stone Age 50/1
Royal Champion 66/1
Mac Swiney 80/1
Helvic Dream 200/1
Full betting at Oddschecker here
Champion Stakes (4.00pm) preview
The most valuable race on the most valuable day of the year is, from a betting perspective, something of a non-event, though some might argue that Adayar, last year’s Derby winner, is as solid an each-way bet to nothing as they come at around 6-1, since at least four of Baaeed’s eight opponents are hopelessly out of their depth.
The concluding Balmoral Handicap will offer much more in the way of “getting out” bets, though, and even if Adayar is close to his very best form – which is far from certain, or even likely, after one race in 12 months, Baaeed will need to be way below his level in the International Stakes in August to stand much chance of defeat. Most spectators will simply hope to see an outstanding racehorse complete an unbeaten career with an 11th straight success, an outcome that Baaeed and Jim Crowley look all but sure to deliver.
Selection: Baaeed
Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (3.20pm) result
1 Bayside Boy 33-1
2 Modern Games 4-1
3 Jadoomi 9-1
Slow start from Inspiral in the QEII... pic.twitter.com/4LK2kBuXH3
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) October 15, 2022
Updated
Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (3.20pm)
And they’re off … Inspiral fell out of the gate but has soon made up the ground … Jadoomi has the lead with Modern Games just behind … El Drama is in second … Inspiral is way behind … Jadoomi has the lead but Bayside Boy quickens up best to win at 33-1 with Dettori well beaten on Inspiral. The bookies will be relieved given Dettori’s two winners in the previous couple of races.
Thank you Frankie x
— James (@jamesaknight) October 15, 2022
Updated
Not surprisingly, Hollie Doyle has picked up a five-day ban for two instances of careless riding during Trueshan’s Long Distance Cup victory in the opener at Ascot today.
Hollie Doyle picked up 5 days in suspensions after her win on Trueshan. Fortunately ban ends the day before @BreedersCup @MprUpdates
— TRC (@TRCommentary) October 15, 2022
Updated
Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes winner Emily Upjohn is named after a character, marvellously played by Margaret Dumont, in the Marx Brothers’ film A Day at the Races.
Updated
Carol Vorderman, who now seems to be famous for being … well famous, is at the races.
Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (3.20pm) betting
Inspiral 6/4
Modern Games 4/1
The Revenant 9/2
Jadoomi 9/1
Tempus 16/1
Checkandchallenge 20/1
Bayside Boy 28/1
El Drama 40/1
Raadobarg 150/1
Full betting via Oddschecker here
Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (3.20pm) preview
A single-runner field for the first time since 2015, and a warm favourite in Inspiral, last year’s champion juvenile filly, whose three-year-old campaign has not been all that John and Thady Gosden would have hoped to see when she went into winter quarters as the market leader for the 1,000 Guineas. Inspiral was ruled out of the Classic around a week before the race when Gosden decided that she would not be ready to do herself justice, and swerved the Irish equivalent a few weeks later for similar reasons, but proved more than ready for the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot – over the round course – which she won by nearly five lengths. Her two starts since have seen her beaten for the first time in her career – at 1-7, too – and then edge in front of an average field by Group One standards in the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville. Her form at the Royal meeting makes her a worthy favourite here but it was four months ago and Inspiral is another uneasy favourite, out to 6-4 from a top price of 11-8 overnight.
The Revenant, successful in this race two years ago on much slower ground, is one live alternative, but Modern Games, one of a trio of Guineas winners for Charlie Appleby earlier in the season, may be a more dangerous rival. He has gone a little under the radar among the stable’s three-year-old milers as both Native Trail and the ill-fated Coroebus, who won the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, landed more high-profile Classics, but he is ultra-reliable, over today’s trip in particular, and put up a career-best in the Woodbine Mile last time out, having run with credit in Group Ones over both seven and 10 furlongs earlier in the year.
Selection: Modern Games
Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (2.40pm) result
1 Emily Upjohn 3-1 fav
2 Thunder Kiss 50-1
3 Insinuendo 80-1
She gets her Group 1! 👏
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) October 15, 2022
Emily Upjohn travels beautifully to take the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes 🥇
A double on the day for Frankie Dettori! ✌️#ITVRacing | @Ascot | @thadygosden pic.twitter.com/40qffJ78Cu
Updated
Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (2.40pm)
And they’re off … Eshaada and Sweet Lady are prominent in the early stages … Emily Upjohn is just behind the leaders … Rosscarberry has taken up the running … Sea La Rosa moves up third just behind Sweet Lady … Albaflora is behind the leaders as Emily Upjohn comes with a determined run … and kicks clear for a Dettori double! And cue another trademark flying dismount.
Updated
Ten years ago I was at Ascot to see Frankel win in his final race. This ITV Racing feature reunites the stallion with Lady Cecil, wife of the great horse’s legendary trainer Henry.
🗣 "If Henry hadn't have been unwell I think he would have persuaded the prince to keep him as a five-year old... Then he maybe could have gone for the Ark."@chamberlinsport sits down with Lady Jane Cecil to talk all things 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐥.#ITVRacing | @JuddmonteFarms pic.twitter.com/R6PY7nROsG
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) October 15, 2022
Updated
The expletives are catching today clearly!
Frankie "I didn't fuck it up this time" straight down the lense
— Jay (@TracksideJay) October 15, 2022
hahahaha love it
Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (2.40pm) betting
Emily Upjohn 9/2
Eternal Pearl 9/2
Sea La Rosa 15/2
Mimikyu 15/2
Stay Alert 10/1
Rosscarbery 12/1
Eshaada 12/1
Sweet Lady 12/1
14/1 BAR
14 Runners
Full betting at Oddschecker here
Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (2.40pm) preview
A race that is open to all female horses that are three or older, but the older runners have been very much on the back hoof since it was upgraded to Group One status in 2013. Just two of the nine winners since were four year olds, with the Classic generation taking the other seven renewals, and the three-year-olds look to have a strong grip on proceedings once again. Sea La Rosa – who could give a huge fillip to William Haggas’s title challenge – is the only older horse at single-figure odds, in a market dominated by John Gosden’s Emily Upjohn, who was touched off in the Oaks in June, the progressive Eternal Pearl, who is looking for a five-timer, and Mimikyu, a stable companion of Emily Upjohn.
Frankie Dettori, Gosden’s stable jockey, has opted for Emily Upjohn and many punters will see that as a hint that cannot be ignored, especially at the track where he once rode all seven winners on the card. On the book, however, there is very little between the Gosden runners, and Mimikyu’s cosy success in the Park Hill at Doncaster last time suggested that she is still improving whereas Emily Upjohn was a distinct disappointment when last of six in the King George at Ascot back in July. A softer surface may well suit her today but at the likely odds, Mimikyu looks like the one to back at around 7-1 with Eternal Pearl, another fast-improving filly, perhaps the bigger danger than the favourite.
Selection: Mimikyu
Champions Sprint Stakes (2pm) result
1 Kinross 3-1 fav
2 Run To Freedom 150-1
3 Creative Force 4-1
Champions Sprint Stakes (2pm)
And they’re off … Naval Crown is prominent with Kinross and Perfect Power … Kinross takes it up and kicks clear for a very smooth win. Cue a flying dismount from man never out of the news, Frankie Dettori.
👏 Flying dismount time on #ChampionsDay@FrankieDettori amongst the winners on the wel-backed Kinross pic.twitter.com/SxHBzRzNS6
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) October 15, 2022
Updated
Champions Sprint Stakes (2pm) betting
Kinross 4/1
Creative Force 9/2
Art Power 11/2
Rohaan 13/2
Perfect Power 9/1
Tenebrism 14/1
Naval Crown 16/1
Brad The Brief 18/1
20/1 Bar
18 Runners
Full betting at Oddschecker here
Champions Sprint Stakes (2pm) preview
A big field as always for what is generally the trickiest of this card’s four Group One events, with winners at 33-1, 28-1 and 16-1 in the last four runnings alone. Creative Force, last year’s winner for Charlie Appleby, is vying for favouritism with Kinross, who was four-and-a-half lengths behind him in ninth place 12 months ago but is currently in the form of his life and landed the Group One Prix de la Foret at Longchamp 13 days ago. Other runners with previous Group One wins to their name include Perfect Power, a top juvenile last year who also took the Commonwealth Cup over this track and trip at the Royal meeting; Tenebrism, who landed the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville in July but over seven furlongs rather than today’s six; and Naval Crown, another for the Appleby yard and also a course-and-distance winner in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes in June.
Taking all that into account, however, it is entirely possible that this will be the day when Rohaan finally gets a Group One under his girth. David Evans’s gelding is another with excellent form over six furlongs at Ascot, having landed the ultra-competitive Wokingham Handicap for the last two seasons, and while he was well below form in this race last year, Evans is convinced that various niggling problems that were holding Rohaan back there are now behind him. He looked better than ever in the Bengough Stakes last time, which took his record at Ascot to four-from-five, and 6-1 is a very fair price.
Selection: ROHAAN
Hollie Doyle may have triumphed in that opening race but is likely to get a ban as she gave eventual second Coltrane quite a nudge as they passed the post on the first circuit. The stewards seem sure to be taking a close look at that incident.
🗣 "Horseracing is a non-contact sport with a hell of a lot of contact!"
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) October 15, 2022
Ruby breaks down Hollie Doyle's win on Trueshan.#ITVRacing | @Ascot pic.twitter.com/Mv7OTHdC5e
Updated
Long Distance Cup (1.25pm) result
1 Trueshan 11-8 fav
2 Coltrane 10-1
3 Trawlerman 20-1
💋 A kiss from @HollieDoyle1 for old friend Trueshan pic.twitter.com/nRUumvVcIK
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) October 15, 2022
Updated
Long Distance Cup (1.25pm)
And they’re off … Quickthorn leads in the early stages with Trawlerman up there and Trueshan being restrained just behind the leaders … Waterville is in last place but it’s early days … Wordsworth is in third spot at Swinley Bottom and Trueshan fourth … Eldar Eldarov is towards the rear … Trawlerman makes a challenge as does Trueshan … Trueshan and Coltrane fight it out with Coltrane taking the lead but is foiled by Trueshan on the line.
What a battle! @HollieDoyle1 and Trueshan get the better of Coltrane in an epic finish to the Qipco Long Distance Cup at @Ascot!pic.twitter.com/nBlBZLz5HS
— Sky Sports Racing (@SkySportsRacing) October 15, 2022
Updated
A fascinating subplot to today’s action is the destination of the Flat season trainers’ title with William Haggas and Charlie Appleby slugging it out for the crown as Greg Wood outlined in his preamble. A release from BritishGambler.co.uk informs me that “Appleby leads the way with £5,375,274.88 in prize money to Haggas’ £5,294,645.80”. That’s tight and we’ll keep you posted on the battle throughout the meeting.
The late Queen’s absence will be most keenly felt at Royal Ascot next year but she was also a regular on Champions Day and always had been for the equivalent meeting which has hosted the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. It has been reported that the the late monarch’s extensive horse racing operation is set to be left to Queen Consort Camilla and she has arrived at Ascot today.
Long Distance Cup (1.25pm) betting
Trueshan 9/5
Eldar Eldarov 11/4
Waterville 5/1
Coltrane 10/1
Quickthorn 11/1
Trawlerman 20/1
Wordsworth 33/1
Stratum 66/1
8 Runners
Full betting at Oddschecker here
Long Distance Cup (1.25pm) preview
Trueshan’s old adversary, Stradivarius, is no longer a consideration as Alan King’s gelding attempts to win this Group Two contest for the third year running, but this could still prove to be his toughest Champions Day assignment to date, with a St Leger winner – EldarEldarov – and a could-be-anything dark horse from the Aidan O’Brien yard, Waterville, among his seven opponents. Both are attracting support this morning, while Trueshan is a little uneasy in the betting and out to 2-1, from around 7-4 overnight.
Trueshan has the softish ground that suits him so well, but was also well below form last time out, when Coltrane, another of today’s rivals, got the better of him by a neck in the Doncaster Cup. King suggested afterwards that Trueshan was still feeling the effects of his first race on ground faster than good, in the Goodwood Cup in July, but it will still be a nagging concern for anyone backing Hollie Doyle to bring up the hat-trick. If he is again below his very best form, Eldar Eldarov will not need to find much to beat him on his Leger form, and since Roger Varian’s colt could well improve again for step up to two miles, he looks like the one to back at the prices.
Selection: Eldar Eldarov
Radio 4 listeners this morning who were getting over actress Miriam Margolyes saying “Fuck you, bastard” about the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, on the Today programme may not have noticed broadcaster Clare Balding with some words about one of her brother Andrew’s horses running at Ascot today.
“My brother has a runner in the 1.25pm race at Ascot and how appropriate this would be given the news about Robbie Coltrane. It’s number one Coltrane,” said Balding. The news of the actor’s death came yesterday and the betting news via Horse.bet in my inbox informs me that Coltrane is the second-best backed runner after Trueshan in the opener.
Dettori reveals next season may be his last
Frankie Dettori, by many lengths the racing personality best known to the general public, has said 2023 could be his last season in the saddle.
“I’m definitely riding on next year, I know that, 100%,” Dettori told the Sun newspaper, for which he appears in a regular Saturday column. “There are still some things to look forward to but next season might be my last. At the moment I’m still loving it, I’m riding whenever I can. But we’ll have to see how I’m feeling this time next year.
“Hopefully someone can find me a winner in the July Cup! That’s the only big race I need. “My shoulder is horrible, it looks black and it’s bruised. I got a right kicking [at Newmarket last week] but I can’t feel any pain.”
This year has certainly had its ups and downs for Dettori. It started with Dubai World Cup success on Country Grammer but he had a highly-publicised fallout at Royal Ascot with his main employer John Gosden. Following a brief “sabbatical”, they were reunited and went on to win the Prix Jacques le Marois with Inspiral and the Ebor with Trawlerman. Last weekend was also eventful for the 51-year-old, with a heavy fall at Newmarket quickly forgotten after winning the Dewhurst on Chaldean.
Dettori, who has always been synonymous with Ascot following his seven-timer at the track in 1996, has a high-profile ride today on Inspiral for Gosden in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
Updated
Preamble
Good morning from Ascot racecourse for the 12th Champions Day card, the most valuable afternoon in British racing and a meeting that will also – barring a U-turn of almost Truss-like proportions – see the outstanding colt Baaeed make his final appearance on the track, in the Champion Stakes at 4pm (all times BST).
This celebration of what is essentially a summer sport has suffered several times in recent years as a result of distinctly un-summery weather, and was even forced to move to the hurdles track three years ago to ensure the card’s survival. Just two of the 11 Champions Day cards to date have been run on the good-to-firm going that most tracks aim to provide on the Flat, while the other nine have all been staged on soft or good-to-soft ground.
The run-up to Baaeed’s swansong, though, has been blessed with better weather than is often the case in mid-October, but the track is still riding good-to-soft, and soft in places, and as Ascot’s highly informative going map shows, the “places” include a little more than half of the 10-furlong trip in the feature event.
Two of the unbeaten Baaeed’s 10 career wins have come on good-to-soft ground, including a narrow but convincing defeat of Palace Pier in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on this card last year, but today’s going is likely to be softer than anything he has experienced to date. In Adayar, last year’s Derby and King George winner, he is also up against the most accomplished rival he has faced to date.
It’s hard to get a line on precisely where Adayar is now, however, as his four-year-old season has been restricted to a single start at Doncaster last month, and the mood music in the betting market is not encouraging as he has eased from 5-1 to 6-1 overnight.
Baaeed, on the other hand, is now a 2-9 chance, while William Haggas, his trainer, starts the day as 8-11 favourite to win the trainers’ championship for the first time in his career. As Haggas conceded earlier this week, if Baaeed does not win the Champion Stakes, he will be “33-1, or 133-1” to land the title, regardless of whether Adayar – trained by his only serious rival, Charlie Appleby – takes the spoils.
Appleby, who is even-money for the title, could extend his current £77,000 lead significantly in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, the race before the Champion Stakes, where his three-year-old colt Modern Games is 4-1 second-favourite behind Inspiral, last year’s best juvenile filly.
Appleby also has runners with chances in the Group One Sprint, including the current joint-favourite, Creative Force, and another big hope in the Fillies & Mares race where Eternal Pearl is nudging up against Emily Upjohn, the Oaks runner-up, at the head of the betting.
Elsewhere on a top-class card, meanwhile, Hollie Doyle will be looking for a third successive win on Trueshan in the Long Distance Cup when the action gets under way at 1.25pm. Picks for the six-race card, all of which is televised on ITV1, are here, and you can follow all the action as the day unfolds here on the blog.
