Ben Linfoot looks back at six of the most memorable moments of QIPCO British Champions day since its inception in 2011 ahead of Saturday's stellar card at Ascot.
FRANKEL – 2011 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes
QIPCO British Champions day owes a lot to the wonder of Sir Henry Cecil’s Frankel. The poster boy for the first two years of the concept, Frankel lit up the inaugural event with a supreme display in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, the best performance of his career at the time even if he was to better it on more than one occasion as a four-year-old. Keen in the early stages, if you watch the video below you can see him pulling Tom Queally’s arms out with his head to one side on his first run for 80 days. His last appearance had been in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, where he demolished five-time Group One winner Canford Cliffs by five lengths. Incredibly, this was even more impressive. “Two quality horses are made to look mere mortals as Frankel remains unbeaten and wins the QEII,” called commentator Richard Hoiles, the two opponents in question being Excelebration, the previous month’s Group One Prix Du Moulin winner, and Immortal Verse, a dual-Group One winner herself. She was beaten over seven lengths in third, Frankel powering away beyond the line, proving difficult to pull up, hinting at what was to come in his glorious final season. Champions Day couldn’t have asked for a better start.
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RITE OF PASSAGE – 2012 Long Distance Cup
Dermot Weld, a pioneer at targeting international races, quickly bought into the Champions Day concept. Overall he’s got an eye-catching strike-rate of 50 per cent, four Champions Day winners from just eight runners, since the meeting’s inception and it all began with an outstanding training performance. His 2012 double, Rite Of Passage in the Long Distance Cup and Sapphire in the Fillies & Mares, was initiated by a horse having his first run for 510 days, legs bandaged, having only had the one run in almost two-and-a-half years. He had to wait for a gap, too, but was not to be denied once it opened, Pat Smullen taking an incredibly daring path up the inside rail before just getting there on the line. Weld had done it before with Rite Of Passage, winning the Ascot Gold Cup 92 days after he was last seen in the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, but even that achievement was put into the shade by his Champions Day feat. The son of Giant’s Causeway clearly inherited plenty of iron will from his sire, if not his constitution. Sadly, he never raced again.
EXCELEBRATION – 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes
Beaten five times by Frankel, by an aggregate of 26-and-a-quarter lengths, Excelebration did his bit for the legend of Sir Henry Cecil’s horse by franking the form pretty much whenever he stepped out of his shadows. A winner of the Group One Prix Du Moulin and Jacques Le Marois, as well as Group Twos and Threes by big margins, Excelebration’s greatest day in the sun came in the 2012 QEII, just over half-an-hour before Frankel bowed out of the game. Sent off the 10/11 favourite, the son of Exceed And Excel, now with Aidan O’Brien having been previously trained by Marco Botti, impressively quickened clear in the style of his old foe to beat Cityscape by three lengths. It was to be his final success as he was below form in his swansong at the Breeders’ Cup, but the QEII on Champions Day, the highlight of his three Group One wins, ensured he’d be remembered for being a great miler in his own right, instead of one that regularly saw the backside of Frankel. Just about.
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FRANKEL – 2012 Champion Stakes
And back to Frankel. Since the last Champions Day he’d added four more Group Ones to his glittering CV, including a scarcely believable 11-length demolition of Excelebration in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. Even that staggering performance was matched at York’s Ebor Meeting, when he stepped up to 10 furlongs for the first time in the Juddmonte International, Farhh and St Nicholas Abbey his latest victims. Everything was just as easy for him at the new trip and he cruised through the contest, drawing clear in the closing stages without anywhere near maximum assistance from the saddle. But Champions Day was to bring about another different test for him, as 10 furlongs in soft ground was new territory – and he had a high-class mud lover in Cirrus Des Aigles to tackle as well. The day wasn’t without drama, either. More rain fell than ideal and his participation was in some doubt, but he eventually got the green light after connections’ had walked the track. Yet the atmosphere was one of apprehension. Everyone present just hoped he would get the job done, on what was likely at the time, and what proved to be afterwards, his farewell. Such a feeling was reflected in his starting price of 2/11, the biggest he’d been sent off for a race since his seasonal reappearance in the Lockinge. Then he dwelt in the stalls, losing a few lengths. Had he become too relaxed? All those fears, though, were swiftly removed as he breezed into the lead in customary manner in the home straight. He didn’t accelerate away with his usual gusto, the ground saw to that, and this wasn’t his finest performance. But he’d won, again, for the 14th time in 14 goes, this time despite adversity. And then time was called on his career, one that is unlikely to ever be matched.
NOBLE MISSION – 2014 Champion Stakes
Noble Mission carried the tag of being Frankel’s full-brother like a lead weight around his neck for the first half of his career, but he was a reformed character in his final season as a five-year-old. A new jockey, James Doyle, and new tactics, from the front, seemed to transform him and, though he only won four of his first 15 starts, he triumphed in five of his last six. Testing conditions seemed crucial to him and that’s what he got on Champions Day 2014, when Lady Cecil prepared him for his swansong in the Champion Stakes on the back of an 83-day break. What followed was an epic dual with Al Kazeem, the pair at it full throttle for more than the final two furlongs, a neck separating them at the line. Al Kazeem looked to have his measure two furlongs out, when he was travelling the better, and then again inside the final furlong when it looked like he headed him. But Noble Mission was not for passing. He dug in, ever so bravely, for a hard-fought success, emulating his more famous brother, something that couldn’t have been envisaged when he was struggling to get his head in front at a lesser level for much of his three and four-year-old career.
MUHAARAR – 2015 Champion Sprint
Muhaarar blossomed into an exceptional sprinter in the summer of 2015. Having failed to settle from a desperately wide draw in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains at Longchamp, he dropped back to six furlongs from a mile in the inaugural Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, smashing up none other than Limato by almost four lengths. The July Cup followed, and the Prix Maurice de Gheest, but he saved the best for last, the Champion Sprint at Ascot on October 17. A big field lined up to take him on, but his 19 rivals didn’t stand a chance at any stage. The son of Oasis Dream fairly tanked through the contest, travelling without fuss a furlong out as everything was being scrubbed along in behind. When Paul Hanagan said go he lengthened clear, two lengths ahead of previously unbeaten Sprint Cup winner Twilight Son. Unfortunately he was retired to stud as a three-year-old, but that Champions Day performance is the benchmark for six-furlong sprinters in the race at the moment. Perhaps Harry Angel, sensational in the Sprint Cup last time, can set a new one on Saturday. It will be a truly memorable performance if he does…
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