Key events
Impressive by Almeraq, who might have preferred a slightly softer surface but still ran down Paborus with something to spare after Edward Bethell’s runner got a jump on his rivals against the far rail.
That could well be Almeraq’s final start before he heads off to a new career as a stallion. A memorable conclusion to his racing career, if so.
2.05 ASCOT RESULT: ALMERAQ ARRIVES LATE FOR FAVOURITE BACKERS
1. ALMERAQ 11-10 fav, 2. Paborus 18-1, 3. Division 17-2, 4. Coppull 11-1. 16 ran.
Power Blue leads far side with SOul Love, Coppull there too and they’re heading to the far side ..
Paborus leads far rail, he leads a furlong out but Almeraq is closing, he’s running him down and the favourite is going to get there!
Off and running in the Champions Sprint!
They’re at the post for the Champions Sprint. Almeraq is a rock-solid favourite at 11-10, but might there be another boilover?
Andrew Balding has just become the first trainer in British Flat racing history to pass £9m in prize money in a single season. And yet, he’s still perhaps a marginal outsider to win the title, as Aidan O’Brien’s best chances are yet to come.
Here’s the latest odds on the Sprint Stakes via Oddschecker:
Almeraq 7/5
Division 8/1
Couppull 11/1
Great Wish 12/1
Samangan 14/1
Paborus 14/1
Kind of Blue 16/1
16/1 BAR
2.05 British Champions Sprint Stakes, Group One, 6f
Welcome to the Twilight Zone, a six-furlong sprint down the straight course where anything can happen and frequently does. Last year’s winner was a 200-1 chance, Powerful Glory, while Art Power went in at 40-1 two years before that, and there have been winners too at 33-1 and 28-1 since 2018.
There is a decent set-up for another surprise today, as the warm favourite, Almeraq, has the best form including two Group One wins, in the Sprint Cup at Haydock and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Stakes over course and distance in June, but seems at his best with some cut in the ground. He also tends to be held up in his races, which is not an ideal run-style on this six-furlong strip, and while he got away with it in June, today’s race may not unfold in quite the same way.
There are plenty of each-way alternatives to the 6-5 favourite, including the three-year-old Division, fourth home in the Commonwealth Cup here in June.
Samangan is also a live runner for Francis-Henri Graffard’s burgeoning operation in Chantilly, having won the Group One Prix Mauriuce du Gheest at Deauville in August.
And I’ll be having a few quid each-way on Clive Cox’s Coppull, who ended up on the wrong side in the Commonwealth Cup in June (see above), did not like the soft ground at Haydock last time and has otherwise performed with credit in a series of strong events, including a fourth place in the July Cup three months ago.
Andrew Balding had a quick chat with ITV Racing’s Matt Chapman on the way back to the winner’s enclosure.
We were taking a chance on two miles, but he loves Ascot and PJ gave him a brilliant ride. It was great to do it in those colours too.
What a result for the Andrew Balding stable, a Group One winner that few saw coming and £283,500 added to the prize-money haul.
PJ McDonald worked wonders to find a way through on Mount Atlas against the rail, and ran down O’Brien’s Queenstown, who got a top-notch front-running ride from Ryan Moore, well inside the final furlong.
Great to see the famous colours of the late owner-breeder Paul Mellon aboard the winner too. They are now used by the Kingsclere Racing Club, and were perhaps most famously carried to victory by the great Mill Reef in the Derby, King George and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1971 – the year that Balding’s father, Ian, won the trainers’ title for the first and only time.
1.30 ASCOT; ATLAS SHOULDERS THE BURDEN FOR BALDING
1. MOUNT ATLAS 33-1, 2. Queenstown 14-1, 3. Highwayman 7-4 fav. 10 ran.
Halfway now, no major changes in the running order …
Queenstown now moves into the lead and will lead into the straight …
Gregory moves through into second, Amelia Earhart coming too, and here’s Mount Atlas for Andrew Balding …
Queenstown in front but here comes Mount Atlas! Andrew Balding strikes in the Long Distance Cup with a 33-1 outsider!
Now Quickthorn and Queenstown go into a six-length lead, Gregory leads the pursuit with Highwayman …
Off and running in the Long Distance Cup …
It’s a level break, and Queenstown leads early from Daiquiri Bay, Gregory close up and now Quickthorn comes through to lead …
Going to post for the Long Distance Cup, Highwayman remains favourite at around 9-4 while Gregory is a little easier to back at around 100-30.
Eve Johnson Houghton was in fine form after her win with Night In Vegas in the opener.
I thought he might get a mile [at three] when he won over seven furlongs, but who cares? We’re just going to have fun next year, knowing what we’ve done this year.
Fifteen minutes to the off in the Long Distance Cup, the first of today’s Group One races, and Oddschecker have been in touch with the latest prices:
Highwayman 9/4
Gregory 7/2
Caballo de Mar 11/2
Daiquiri Bay 10/1
Queenstown 11/1
Opportunity 12/1
Amiloc 20/1
20/1 BAR
Challenges do not come any better-timed than Charles Bishop’s late thrust on Night In Vegas.
His total haul of prize money for the Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds syndicate is now more than £700k, an astonishing return for a juvenile that cost just 60,000gns (£63k) at Tattersalls’ Book 3 sale last year.
1.30 British Champions Long Distance Cup, Group One, 1m 7f 209yd
The first of the card’s Group One races lost the biggest name in the field when Scandinavia, the Gold Cup winner at the Royal meeting here in June, was ruled out by Aidan O’Brien earlier in the week, but in his absence it promises to be a much more competitive event for the punters to unpick.
Highwayman, who provided Saffie Osborne with a moment of Classic history when he took the St Leger at Doncaster last month, is the main representative of the three-year-old generation, with his regular jockey, Dylan Browne McMonagle, back in the saddle after recovering from injury.
He’s up against Gregory, the winner of the Queen’s Vase over this track and trip at the Royal meeting in 2024, who is three years older but has few miles on the clock having had an injury-affected career.
Caballo De Mar, meanwhile, is in the form of his life, and arrives at Ascot o the back of victories in both the Group Two Doncaster Cup and the Group One Prix du Cadran at Longchamp two weeks ago, when he beat Scandinavia into second place.
Daiquiri Bay, the Ebor Handicap winner in August, adds further spice to the mix – last year’s Ebor winner, after all, went on to take the Breeders’ Cup Turf in California a couple of months later. Personally, though, I feel Highwayman is the runner with the greatest scope for improvement, not least as today’s race will be his first start at two miles.
A fabulous finish to the opener on Champions Day as Night In Vegas gets up in the final stride to deny Arapaho Gold on the nod, with Satellite Of Love close behind in third.
Eve Johnson Houghton’s juvenile is now one of the bigger money-earners in British two-year-old racing history, but has yet to win a Group race at any level.
12.55 ASCOT RESULT: VEGAS LANDS ANOTHER JACKPOT
1. NIGHT IN VEGAS 5-2, 2. Arapaho Gold 9-4 fav, 3. Satellite Of Love 4-1. 11 ran.
Off and running in the 12.55 Ascot !
The runners that could decide the trainers’ title
Aidan O’Brien has eight runners on today’s card, starting with Confucius in the opener and followed up by:
Queenstown (1.30), Amelia Earhart (1.30), Minnie Hauk (2.40), Sugar Island (2.40), Gstaad (3.20), Hawk Mountain (3.20) and finally Constitution River in the Champion Stakes at 4.00.
Andrew Balding has five:
Mount Atlas (1.30), Marvelman (2.05), See The Fire (2.40), Kalpana (2.40) and Mister Winston (4.35).
12.55 Ascot, latest betting
Here are the latest prices on the opening juvenile event at Ascot, courtesy of Oddschecker.
Arapaho Gold- 5/2
Night in Vegas- 7/2
Satellite of Love- 4/1
Inner City Blues- 13/2
Speed of Sound- 14/1
Confucius- 22/1
Oakford- 25/1
BAR- 25/1
12.55 British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes, 6f
They will be in the parade ring imminently ahead of the most recent addition to the Champions Day schedule is still too young to have earned Pattern-race status, but last year’s winner, Mission Central, followed up in the Group One King Charles III Stakes at the Royal meeting here in the summer so it is off to a very strong start.
The favourite for the latest renewal is Arapaho Gold, who was the best horse at the weights when third in the Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury last time.
He is top-rated by Timeform too, but the current form of his trainer, Michael Dods, has to be a concern as he has not saddled a single winner from 30 runners over the past two weeks.
Night In Vegas has been making hay in a series of races linked to yearling sales and auction prices, amassing nearly £600k in the process, and has a very decent chance of adding another £128k here, and had Satellite Of Love back in the second when the pair were the 1-2 in the sales race at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting. On a strict reading of the form, though, Satellite Of Love should be ahead of Night In Vegas today – he’s 7lb better off for a half-length beating.
Aidan O’Brien’s only runner, Confucius, finished last on his most recent outing and is unfancied in the betting, but Inner City Blues, in the first colours of the Godolphin operation, is definitely worth considering – he’s taking a significant drop in class after finishing fifth in the Group One Middle Park Stakes last time.
But I’m going to take an each-way punt on the apparent Godolphin second-string, Victory Gold. Runners from Saeed bin Suroor’s stable tend to go under the radar these days, but he has maintained an impressive strike-rate despite playing second-fiddle to Charlie Appleby for much of the last decade. And his runners are definitely worth a closer look when he books Oisin Murphy to ride – they have teamed up to record a 30pc strike-rate and a significant level-stakes profit over the last six seasons.
Preamble
Welcome to Ascot on Champions Day 2026, ahead of a seven-race card that stands at least a fair degree of comparison with the end-of-season jamborees in Paris two weeks ago, and in Keeneland later this month.
For that, we owe thanks to the long, dry summer that has extended into mid-October. That means in turn that this year’s card will be one of the few without the word “soft” somewhere in the going description (although it is also, as the Racing Post’s columnist Richard Forristal pointed out earlier this week, “a pity that it required the world to burn for the event to work”).
But here we are, with seven races including five Group Ones and an unusually live race for the Flat trainers’ championship between Andrew Balding and Aidan O’Brien which could effectively be decided today.
Balding’s main hope is Kalpana, the favourite, in the Fillies & Mares Stakes at 2.40, while O’Brien has several decent chances scattered through the card, the most obvious being Gstaad in the £1.1m Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at 3.20 and Constitution River in the feature event, the £1.3m Champion Stakes, at 4.00.
Shock winners were the order of the day last year, when the Sprint was won by a 200-1 shot and the QEII by a 100-1 chance, so the punters may well approach the proceedings with a degree of trepidation.
My picks for the seven races are here – underneath an interview with the immensely impressive new 20-year-old champion jockey, Billy Loughnane – and we are underway at 12.55 with the Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes.