Ombudsman's Champion Stakes analysis: Graeme North with the timefigure verdict

Frankel’s courageous win in the 2012 Champion Stakes remains my favourite Champions Day memory, overcoming ground that Timeform called soft to defeat the top-class French mudlark Cirrus des Aigles and remain unbeaten, but there have been several performances at the fixture not far off that level if not quite in terms of drama since.

Fittingly, Frankel’s son Cracksman was responsible for two of those moments, with his win in the 2018 renewal narrowly bettering his win in the 2017 version, and his trainer John Gosden can now partly lay claim to another with Ombudsman whose clear-cut and downright impressive success in the latest renewal over defending champion Calandagan is the best Timeform has witnessed this year right up there with his win over the same course and distance back in June in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes where he had another Champions Day winner Minnie Hauk back in second and the Arc winner Daryz back in third.  

Those buyers whose focus was essentially on just three stallions – Night of Thunder, Frankel and Wootton Bassett - at the recent Tattersalls Book 1 Sale which saw the European record price for a yearling colt by Ombudsman’s sire Night of Thunder smashed won’t have been surprised to see each of those stallions having a Champions Day winner.

Expectations will be high for that yearling, of course, but Ombudsman largely went under the radar at a similar age, not even making the Book 1 catalogue which ended up being dominated that year by progeny of Frankel but Book 2 instead and then not even in the top 15 lots by sale price.

Ombudsman didn’t make his debut until he was three but rapidly developed into a smart colt, ending the season with two wins in France, but he’s taken a big step forward in both seasons since and turned up on Champions Day a superior model to the one in 2025 who made his effort a bit too early, running the quickest fourth-and third-last furlongs only to be picked off by Calandagan whose delayed effort saw him run the penultimate furlong fastest of all and then the last one too.

Ombudsman’s most potent weapon is his turn of foot, first evident at Deauville in the listed Prix Nureyev as a three-year-old then more recently in this year’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes where connections seemed to have learnt from his defeat by Calandagan by delaying his effort until the two-furlong marker, and that explosive burst of speed was obvious again on Saturday against what was the smallest field since Frankel’s win.

Ombudsman’s timefigure was an ordinary 115, testament to the absence of end-to-end gallop, but sectional upgrades paint a healthier superiority over Calandagan than the official margins suggest to the extent he gave Calandagan an 11lb beating on the day.

A cracking turn of foot he might have, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that Ombudsman is the only horse to have run a timefigure greater than 130 in either Britain or Ireland this year, so there can be little disputing his position as top older horse in Europe.

Calandagan’s effort was more evidence he’s not quite the force he was last year on the back of a globetrotting campaign, while both Bay City Roller and Almaqam, while running well, might have fared better on softer ground; Constitution River took a very strong hold and looks to be going the wrong way, quite possible that he won’t be seen again.    

Also posting a 115 timefigure was Mount Atlas in the British Champions Long Distance Cup. The second running of the race as a Group 1, it was missing Scandanavia and Trawlerman, and with several of what looked like the main contenders such as St Leger winner Highwayman and Prix du Cadran winner Caballo De Mar below their best, it looked a bit light on quality.

As such, Mount Atlas probably didn't need to improve a great amount, 3lb or so enough on the day, but to give credit where credit is due his timefigure was a career best, 4lb better than the 111 he’d posted when second earlier this year behind Jan Brueghel in the Ormonde Stakes.

Much of the pre-race speculation I read about Champions Day focussed on ‘getting the favourites beat’, probably because of the wins at 200/1 and 100/1 last year of Powerful Glory and Cicero’s Gift and at 40/1 of Anmaat the year before that.

Other than Mount Atlas, however, the remaining Group races went pretty much to form. Talk Of New York, the talk of Newmarket for a long time now, was sent off bigger than even money for only the second time in his career in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and remarkably he’d been beaten twice at odd- on in lesser company in the run up, at Meydan in February when set plenty to do and having to go very wide and at Goodwood in July where he struggled on the track.

All that said, other than Gstaad, who was sent off favourite despite his below-par effort in the Moulin only to disappoint again, Talk Of New York had the best form and followed up his win in the Joel Stakes with an authoritative performance, one that augurs well for next year, though he would have been made to work harder had Rayif not been set as much to do, possibly taking longer to find his stride than his rider Christophe Soumillon (who was deputising for regular pilot Mickael Barzalona) anticipated, nearest at the finish and with every chance of turning the tables on the winner should they meet again next year, the sectionals suggesting he was worth a 2lb higher upgrade than Talk Of New York. 

Even shorter in the betting than either Talk Of New York or Ombudsman was Almeraq, whose win in the British Champions Sprint was his third Group 1 sprint win of the year, a feat last achieved by Highfield Princess, and is surely enough for him to be recognised as the best in Europe even in the absence of Lazzat and Comanche Brave.

Not quite the same force he looked at Haydock, perhaps because of these less testing conditions, he posted a 114 timefigure running down the Haydock runner-up Paborus with much less to spare this time but worthy of a 2lb better upgrade after conceding the runner-up first run. Interestingly, it was his sire Dark Angel’s fifth win at the meeting since 2015, a total bettered in that time period only by the now deceased Galileo, and fourth since 2022 with two of the other winners also coming at the top level, Art Power in 2023 in this race and Charyn in 2024 in the Queen Elizabeth II.   

Frankel sired his first winner at the meeting since Cracksman when his daughter Minnie Hauk landed the Fillies’ and Mares. Running here in preference to the Champion Stakes, she has had something of an underwhelming season but with the short-priced and reigning champion Kalpana running well below her best, and subsequently retired, she was able to take advantage without having to be at her peak level, her win just the third for her trainer on Champions Day since 2019 after Kyprios in 2024 and Mission Central last year.

The proximity in fourth of her stable-companion Sugar Island who’d beaten only four rivals in her last four races suggests the form isn’t quite up to its usual standard, with the winning 109 timefigure at the end of an evenly-run race rather suggesting as much.

The winners of the two other races on the card were trained by Eve Johnson Houghton, her star juvenile colt Night In Vegas providing her with a first winner at the meeting since 2015 , and Fifth Column who gave the Gosdens their fifth winner since taking out a joint licence.

Night In Vegas was winning his fourth race in a row in the Qatar Racing British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes after three wins in Sales races, but he’d previously finished third in the Richmond and did well to overhaul the front-running pair after not having the clearest of runs through, passing the post in 105 timefigure, the same as when he won the first of those Sales races, the Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes at Newmarket in August.

The race Fifth Column won, the Balmoral Handicap, was unusually modestly run for a 20-runner straight course handicap at Ascot and favoured those who raced near side, though the winner came from some way back in his group and though only posting an 86 timefigure, emerges with a 4lb higher sectional upgrade than anything else in the first five.

He’s hardly unexposed, however, having been beaten off marks in the 100s six times before, but it was his first-time in a visor and he’s worth crediting with improvement in the circumstances.

Ryan unearths smart sprinting prospect

Kevin Ryan didn’t have a runner at Champions Day this year, but he has a potentially smart sprinter on his hands in Yordan who won at Southwell last week.

His previous start at Ascot had seen him handicapped by an unfortunate draw but he sprinted clear on Thursday in the fashion of one bound for Group races with his 103 timefigure the best of the week away from Ascot.

Also worth a mention is the unbeaten two-year-old Wall Street whose victory in the Group 3 Eyrefield Stakes at Leopardstown came in at 101 on the clock and would have been higher had he not still shown signs of residual greenness and found trouble in running. By Sea The Stars, he’s worth bearing in mind for something better.

More from Graeme North

• What did Darkness Falls achieve on the clock?
• Daryz clearly the best in the Arc
• Blanco has ability to go higher
• Dazzling Goddess impresses on the clock
• Ascot likely to be bigger test for Almeraq
• Zavateri bang in QEII mix
• Item has more to offer up in trip
• Coppull not truly tested at seven
• Stars shine bright at Goodwood

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