Our Ben Linfoot reflects on a stunning QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot where there were 100/1 and 200/1 winners.
Talk about the wacky races. On much better ground than is usual (genuinely fast ground as things turned out), they said that the summer Group 1 form would hold up. To be fair Trawlerman and Kalpana justified favouritism, while the latter’s King George conqueror Calandagan ended all the Champion Stakes debates emphatically at a well-backed 15/8.
But the other Group 1s went to 200/1 chance Powerful Glory in the Champions Sprint and 100/1 hero Cicero’s Gift in the QEII, the pair salvaging tough seasons for their trainers Richard Fahey and Charlie Hills, respectively, landing two haymakers in two of the highlights on a wild Champions Day.
If you were punting in the scale between the Hail Mary outsiders and those at the very top of the market, come on in. This is a safe space. You’ve got to roll with the punches in this game and try and learn something from the day. It’s not easy predicting what’s going to happen in this sport, but I always think pretty much everything can be explained afterwards.
Powerful Glory is a real test of that train of thought. Here was a horse who was eighth of nine in the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes for three-year-olds only at Haydock on his reappearance, then fifth of five at Beverley on his first start after getting his wind done on his next start four months later.
After racing against 12 horses this season he had lost to 11 of them. Now he had to take on 18 Group 1 sprinters including Lazzat, Big Mojo and No Half Measures, who had won the top-level Jubilee, Sprint Cup and July Cup this season, as well as course specialists and in-form horses who had beaten considerably more rivals than he had in 2025.
Those were the negatives. But this is an open sprint division, with no standout star. They are winning in turn. That gave him a chance for starters and wily Fahey, who had previous in this race after finishing second with Growl at 50/1 in 2016 before winning it with a three-year-old Sands Of Mali, at relatively slimline odds of 28/1 in 2018, booked Jamie Spencer for a ‘Spencer Special’.
Nobody rides this straight track quite like the 45-year-old from County Tipperary. He counts to 10 and then again before making his challenge and that was a key factor as he held up the son of Cotai Glory in the near-side group away from the early heat. It wasn’t a drastic hold-up job, though, and two furlongs out he switched inside from the stands’ side group into the central space where he powered home to steal the prize from Lazzat in the closing yards.
It was a brilliant ride, but let’s not ignore the training performance. It’s been a low-key year for Fahey as the big name he usually conjures from somewhere just hasn’t emerged until now. But this was a triumph for patience and skill, his last-place finish at Beverley last time now seen in a different light.
Clearly, after wind surgery, he needed it. It was over five furlongs and he was beaten just over three lengths. Obviously it didn’t scream Champions Sprint winner, but he was running on again at the line. That he turned up at Ascot at all is testament to the judgment of the trainer and after Perfect Power he’s continued his super record at this track for owner Sheikh Rashid.
The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes somehow seems even more difficult to fathom. It was brilliant to see the emotion of Jason Watson and Charlie Hills and the Rosehill Racing group who own him, yet here was a gelded son of Muhaarar who looked to need soft ground and last contested a Group 1 two years ago when he was seventh to Paddington.
Stall one beat stall two, but if there was a track bias the GoingStick readings didn’t give any clues, as they suggested the ground was faster in the centre and the stands’ side, and in any case Powerful Glory won on the straight track from stall 14 after challenging down the centre and then in the closing Balmoral they all came stands’ side.
Baffling stuff, but this was a huge field for a Group 1 and baffling things can happen on the Ascot straight track. Perhaps the draw did play a part, perhaps the strip of ground he raced on against the fair rail was a huge help. Either way he still had to fend off The Lion In Winter, the equine opposite of Prince Andrew given his copious amount of sweat, and he outbattled him, with both enjoying similar track position, the latter’s ungainly head carriage on display again despite running such a good race in second.
Were there excuses for Field Of Gold, only fifth home? It didn’t look a positive for him that he was stuck out on the wing of the main group as they all veered towards the far rail, but he was coming back from that Goodwood setback where he finished lame and it looks like he just wasn’t quite at his best. And that opened the door for another momentous shock.
At least in the Champion Stakes normality was restored. Calandagan looked imperious against another solid effort from Ombudsman with Delacroix edged out for third by Almaqam in what was rightly billed as the race of the season. You couldn’t say it didn’t deliver, but somehow the almost unfathomable shocks might well have stolen the show.
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