Timeform's Rory King reflects on the Champions Day action

Timeform reaction to Champions Day: Rory King on Ombudsman's brilliant success

Horse Racing

Sun October 18, 2026 · 4h ago

Timeform's Rory King reflects on Qatar Racing British Champions Day and a performance from Ombudsman that underlined his status as the best horse in Europe.

Fittingly for the end of a season of heatwave after heatwave, a times-based assessment of the ground on Champions Day suggests it might well have been a bit firmer than the official good and, whisper it quietly, but with rising temperatures seemingly going nowhere, Champions Day’s position in the calendar, ridiculed in some quarters with a few of the early editions run on soft ground, could now be starting to look a masterstroke.

Of course there are going to be big horses missing from this meeting, their seasons either over already or built around lofty targets elsewhere in October/November, but each of the five Group ones on the card had a really compelling element to them.

Even without Scandinavia the Long Distance Cup saw a clash between the winners of the St Leger, the Cadran and the Sky Bet Ebor to name just three. There are four Group ones over six or six-and-a-half furlongs in Europe eligible to older horses before this meeting and the Champions Sprint was contested by the winners of three of them.

The Filly And Mares featured both Kalpana whose win in the King George is the best performance by a filly or mare in Europe this year and Minnie Hauk who was denied only narrowly by Daryz in last year's Arc. Five horses in the QEII had previously won a Group One – three of them this year – and a further five had been placed in one.

And then there was the Champion Stakes. Since the end of 2020 there had been only two previous occasions of a race anywhere in the world featuring five horses rated higher than 125 on pre-race Timeform ratings, and this was the first time in more than three years it had happened (the 2022 Arc and the 2023 King George those other two instances).

William Buick enjoys Champion Stakes glory on Ombudsman

And that even despite a race lacking the winners of the King George, the Juddmonte, the Irish Champion Stakes and any British or Irish Classic. In the event this was more a victory lap for Ombudsman than a great horserace.

He is simply fantastic at Ascot and this couldn’t really have panned out much more kindly for him but, in any aspect of life, learning from your mistakes is a very valuable skill, and that’s exactly what Buick has done since making his move earlier than ideal in this race last year.

He waited for longer before unleashing his mount in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes this year, and he was at pains not to commit until he had to here, Calandagan briefly getting to within half-a-length before Ombudsman was able to quicken right away.

Without a Ballydoyle pacemaker the gallop wasn’t quite as strong as we’ve become accustomed to in the top mile and a quarter races at this track, and the proximity of Devil’s Advocate causes a slight issue from a ratings perspective, but this solidifies Ombudsman’s position as the best horse in Europe on Timeform ratings, no disputing that after this and having beaten Minnie Hauk, Daryz and Almaqam so decisively at Royal Ascot.

It’s a shame we got to see Ombudsman and Daryz clash just once this year, when the French horse wasn’t at his best, and at this stage it’s not exactly obvious who will fill the void in the middle-distance division left by their inevitable departure to cover no doubt full and blue-blooded books of mares.

Of the winners of earlier races on the card only Almeraq is likely to be crowned the champion of his/her division. It takes more than one horse to make a champion, though, and a lot of credit goes to Paborus for pushing the winner much closer than at Haydock.

The proximity of pacemakers in both the Fillies And Mares and the QEII as well suggests the form of neither of those races is as strong as it might have been, though Talk of New York is the improving horse in the mile division and, in the absence of Bow Echo, could lead the division next year.

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