Champions Day Spectacular

We are at that time in the racing calendar when we are on the “cusp” of the new jumps season having reached the hiatus of the flat (turf) season. In a couple of weeks, after the “Arc” has been run at Longchamp, the racing fan can turn their attention fully onto the jumps racing scene.

That’s not to say there is no worthy flat racing. I have been a great fan over the years of the Champion Stakes at Newmarket, run on the same day as the Cesarewitch in mid-October. However, this great race with a tremendous history won by the likes of Ormonde, Sceptre, Pretty Polly, Nasrullah, Petite Etoile and Brigadier Gerard (twice) is being transferred to Ascot in 2011 to form part of a new “Champions Day” anticipated to rival Longchamps’ 1st Sunday in October (Arc Day) and the Breeders Cup weekend in North America. Personally, I would have brought an end to the Champion Stakes and created a new name for the race at its new Ascot venue. That way, the organisers could have played around with the trip and race conditions in order to take advantage of the position in the racing calendar.

For instance, it is unlikely that any horse contesting the Arc would run 13-days later in a Champion Stakes unless they were unable to qualify for a direct entry into the Breeders Cup series run on the 1st weekend in November in the US. There is more likelihood that they might run at Ascot 20-days after the Arc (assuming the UK racing authorities are not planning a clash between Newmarket’s current Champions Day meeting, and the proposed new Champions Day at Ascot). After the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot’s late September meeting, there is not another Group 1 over a mile for colts in either Britain or France. There is the Prix de’L’Opera for fillies at the Arc meeting over 10-furlongs, but nothing over the same trip including colts.

If I were considering race planning for the new Champions Day in October at Ascot, I would make the date of the meeting 20-days after the Arc weekend (and, as such, 14-days before the Breeders Cup weekend) as there is no-way any horse that has qualified for the Breeders Cup meeting will take in both the Ascot and the Breeders Cup versions of the same race – they will go for one or the other. But, the extra 7-days after the Arc will increase the possibility of attracting group 1 horses from that meeting. I would include a mile race over the straight Royal Hunt Cup course and, because the draw affects the results of 10-furlong races run over the Ascot course, I would increase the trip of the Champions Stakes to a unique 11-furlongs! Unique trip, unique race – so there is unlikely to be a 6/4 winner, it will more likely be 6/1 the field. Throw-in a meeting special bet of a “Triple-Trio” race pool similar to what they have in Hong Kong (selecting the 1st-3 in correct order in 3 nominated races) with a £100,000 bonus and you could have a meeting that rivals the Melbourne Cup.

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Thanks from Wayward Lad