Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (3.15pm) preview

A fascinating renewal of Ascot’s autumn championship event for milers, and a race in which several of the leading contenders are facing each other for the first time. The key races to consider include Tamfana’s win in the Group One Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket two weeks ago, Charyn’s course-and-distance win in the Queen Anne at the Royal meeting and Henry Longfellow’s close second in the St James’s Palace Stakes on the round course the same afternoon. Aidan O’Brien’s runner has struggled to reach the same lever in two outings since, however, and Dylan Cunha’s Prague has also needs to be factored into calculations after his win in the Joel Stakes last month.

SELECTION: CHARYN

1 Kalpana 10/3 fav
2 Wingspan 12/1
3 Tiffany 13/2

Greg Wood

Champion Filles & Mares Stakes (2.35pm) preview

Aidan O’Brien, who is within sight of a new record for prize money won in a British season, started the day without a winner on this card since Magical landed the Champion Stakes in 2019, and his overall record in the Group Ones on Champions Day since the meeting’s inception in 2011 is five wins from 64 starters, a strike-rate of just under 8pc. That feels distinctly sub-par for such an outstanding trainer, and the fact that many of his fancied runners are attempting to back up quickly after a big run at the Arc meeting in Paris is one possible explanation to bear in mind here, as both Content and Grateful were in action just two weeks ago. Grateful won the Group One Prix de Royallieu, while Content was a no-show in the Prix de l’Opera, but she is the mount of Ryan Moore today and preferred in the market too. The likely favourite, meanwhile, is the progressive Kalpana, who started the season running off 78 in a Newmarket handicap – a 10-length victory there makes her one of the hindsight bets of the season – and she has a fine chance on the form of her win in the Group Three September Stakes on the all-weather at Kempton. Soft ground is an unknown for her, however, which is not the case for Andreas Suborics’s contender, Quantanamera,and she has a live chance on her winning form in a Group Two at Deauville in August.

SELECTION: QUANTANAMERA

1 Kind Of Blue 10/1
2 Swingalong 17/2
3 Flora Of Bermuda 25/1

Greg Wood

Champion Sprint Stakes (1.55pm) preview

A maximum field for the first Group One of the afternoon, a race which was won by a 40-1 chance (Art Power) racing from stall one 12 months ago, on similar ground. That was the second success for a big outsider in the last five runnings, and an odd race all round, as Art Power raced alone for much of the way. He is back for another crack today, and at a big price again too, but is unlikely to get the run of the race from stall 12. The key piece of recent formis probably the Sprint Cup at Haydock won by Montassib in September, when the 16-strong field included no fewer than 13 of today’s runners, including leading fancies Kinross, Elite Status, Audience, Kind Of Blue and my pick, Swingalong. Karl Burke’s filly was an excellent fourth in this race last year, goes on any ground and has fared much better in the draw than she did at Haydock.

SELECTION: SWINGALONG

1 Kyprios 8/11 fav
2 Sweet William 8/1
3 Trawlerman 5/1

Greg Wood

Long Distance Cup (1.20pm) preview

The first and, in all likelihood, the only odds-on shot on the card as Kyprios, one of the outstanding stayers of recent decades, attempts to go one better than in 2022 and complete a seven-race season unbeaten. To this point, his schedule has been identical to the race – including Group One wins in the Gold Cup here at Ascot, the Goodwood Cup, the Irish St Leger and the Cadran at Longchamp on Arc weekend. Kyprios did not line up for this race two years ago, but he was favourite last year after an injury-affected campaign, only to come up a neck short behind Trawlerman. The fact that Kyprios has six races to his name already this season, including a soft-ground victory at the Arc meeting in Paris just two weeks ago, alongside his trainer’s poor record on this card with horses backing up quickly after Longchamp, makes him a dodgy favourite to my mind, and while Al Nayyir appears rejuvenated after a switch to the Tom Clover stable, I’ll go with the fresh Trawlerman to repeat last year’s win.

SELECTION: TRAWLERMAN

Preamble

Greg Wood

Good afternoon from Ascot, where the rain that has been falling fairly persistently for much of the last 12 hours is – hopefully – starting to ease ahead of Britain’s most valuable afternoon at the races: Qipco Champions Day, with £4.1m and four Group One races up for grabs.

The track updated its expectations to a 29,000 crowd on Friday evening, not far short of the attendance to see Frankie Dettori draw the curtain on his British career 12 months ago. A wet start to the day was the last thing anyone wanted, as it may well put at least a slight dent in the “walk-up” ticket sales, but anyone within easy reach of the track who is at a loose end should be aware that there are even occasional patches of blue sky appearing over Berkshire at present.

As was the case last year, the action in the three events on the round course will unfold on the tight inner track due to concerns over the going. It’s not a great look for a day designed to celebrate the summer code that it has ended up on Ascot’s hurdles track for three of the last six years, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone too much 12 months ago and the field sizes are unusually strong, so hopefully not many spectators will notice that the runners are a little further away than ideal.

The Champion Stakes, with £1.3m in the pot, is the feature at 3.55, and the overnight rain seems to be behind a distinct move in favour of Francis-Henri Graffard’s Calandagan, who has form on soft ground and also stays 12 furlongs, in the betting this morning. The King Edward VII Stakes winner is now top-priced at around 13-8, with his fellow three-year-old, Economics, the Irish Champion Stakes winner, as big as 9-4.

Charyn, another winner at the Royal meeting in June, also heads the market at around 13-8 in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on the straight mile at 3.15, while the emerging talent Kalpana is the likely favourite for the Fillies’ & Mares’ and it is anyone’s guess which of the runners will set off as the punters’ pick for the 16-strong Sprint.

You can follow all the action as it happens here on our live blog from the first race to the last (the only handicap on the card, at 4.35) and we are underway on the track at 1.20, when the dual Gold Cup winner, Kyprios, will attempt to get favourite-backers off and running at odds-on in the Long Distance Cup.