When the Queen’s procession made its way down Ascot’s straight mile during the Royal meeting in June, the hurdles course on the inside of the main Flat track was a brown, parched desert. Four months later, the same strip of turf will ride to the rescue on Saturday, in an unexpected but vital role as the stage for Britain’s most valuable day at the races.
There is nearly £4.5m on offer in the six races here on Champions Day, the only British card all year which has two contests with seven-figure prize funds. Had it not been for the fallback of shifting the meeting on the hurdles track, however, then at best we would have been waking up on Saturday morning with no certainty that the card would go ahead, or make it through to the final race if it did.
Instead, a crowd of around 30,000 will arrive here on Saturday with action guaranteed. There will be an extra running rail between spectators and horses, and the runners will be several metres further away from the grandstand, which could be an irritation for some. Overall, however, the likelihood is that the overwhelming majority of racegoers will not really notice the difference.
Horses and riders, on the other hand, certainly will. There was no need for a walking stick to test the ground on the two circuits here on Friday. A few short steps from the Flat course to the inner track was enough to appreciate the sharp contrast in the state of the ground. Officially, the inner course is good-to-soft, soft in places. The rest of the track, including the first half of the straight mile which hosts the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, is heavy.
It is not ideal to be running one of the biggest days in British Flat racing on a jumps track, but when the championship afternoon of a summer sport is scheduled for the weekend before the clocks go back, there will always be times when we have to make the best of it.
There is little point pretending that Saturday’s card is awash with genuine or even potential champions. The latest Longines world rankings include 23 horses with a rating of 121 or higher, of which 18 do most or all of their racing on turf and 14 are, or were, stabled in Europe this summer. Only three – Magical (Champion Stakes), Benbatl (QEII) and Stradivarius (Long Distance Cup) – have been declared to run at Ascot on Saturday, and John Gosden will walk the course before deciding whether to let Stradivarius take his chance. Arc weekend in Paris a fortnight ago had seven runners rated 121 or above, including four of the top five turf horses that are still in training.
But what Ascot does have is Frankie Dettori on the first three favourites of the afternoon: Advertise (Champions Sprint), Stradivarius and Star Catcher (Filly & Mares Stakes).
As he reminded everyone when he rode the first four winners on Gold Cup day back in June, no-one can seize a moment or ride a wave quite like Dettori. A treble on these three rides alone currently multiplies out at around 25-1 and if all three were to oblige, then no-one at Ascot would pay much attention to the weather, the ground, the Brexit debate or anything else bar what Frankie is riding on the rest of the card. The answer, in the unlikely event that the question arises, is a second-favourite, a 10-1 shot and another favourite in the handicap at the end of the card.
Many bookies responded to Dettori’s exploits in June by placing restrictions on multiple bets on his mounts on subsequent days at the Royal meeting. The indications on Friday, however, were that major firms at least will be laying the Dettori ‘Heinz’ – 57 bets, from doubles upwards – without too many quibbles. We can only hope that they are counting the cost as the evening draws in on Saturday.
Greg Wood
Saturday’s TV races guide
Aidan O’Brien has won almost every top-class Flat race in Britain but one of the few to have evaded him is the Champion Stakes, now the centrepiece of Champions Day at Ascot, which has not fallen to a raider from his famous Ballydoyle yard since the Vincent O’Brien-trained Sir Ivor in 1968. Magical (4.00) can be the horse to end that barren run.
While she has a couple of Group One victories to her name, this filly would have won four more, had it not been for Enable and Crystal Ocean. No rival of that standing faces her here. This is her ninth run of the year, so she will need to be durable but the best effort of her 2018 campaign came in November.
1.35 Ascot This will be the softest ground Advertise has encountered by a long way and promises to be significantly more testing even than the Haydock ground through which Hello Youmzain ploughed so effectively last month. Mabs Cross seemed to cope well with the mud at Longchamp, when she did best of those drawn away from the rail. All year, she has been running as though this extra furlong would be a big help and 33-1 could be a very big price about a mare with masses of top-class experience.
2.10 Ascot The exceptional Stradivarius looks set for his 11th consecutive win, none of his rivals here posing an obvious threat. He might have got fed up on hock-deep ground but the switch to the drier inner track has removed even that potential trapdoor.
2.45 Ascot Star Catcher will be hard to beat if Frankie Dettori is once more allowed his own way in front but that can’t be taken for granted against 11 rivals with a big prize on the line. Delphinia appeals as an alternative, having made steady progress all season. She impressed in staying on bravely for second place at Longchamp’s Arc meeting, despite interference.
3.20 Ascot It is easy to like the power-packed finishes produced by The Revenant this year and this ground should be no problem to the French raider but the value of his form is open to question. The way is open for an outsider like Happy Power to get involved. He has seemed to relish the chances he has had on soft ground and, on a fast surface, was beaten less than two lengths in the Sussex Stakes. The grey has sometimes pulled too hard early on but there should be a decent pace on here.
4.40 Ascot A 12lb rise for winning the Cambridgeshire makes this tough for Lord North but the way he shot forwards once in the clear that day suggests he really does belong in a higher grade and he can end the day on a high for the powerful Gosden/Dettori team. Chris Cook
Ascot 1.35 Mabs Cross (nb) 2.10 Stradivarius 2.45 Delphinia 3.20 Happy Power 4.00 Magical 4.40 Lord North
Catterick 1.40 Leoch 2.15 Secret Smile 2.50 Van Gerwen 3.25 Moss Gill 3.55 Appointed 4.30 Confrontational 5.00 Jan De Heem 5.35 Smart Lass
Stratford 1.45 Mercy Mercy Me 2.20 Bells Of Peterboro 2.55 Skeaping 3.30 Western Climate 4.05 Song Of The Sky 4.35 Hurricane Rita 5.10 Superefficient
Ffos Las 1.50 Alanjou 2.25 Miss Honey Ryder 3.00 King Alfonso 3.35 Tidal Flow 4.15 Monsieur Lecoq 4.50 Joueur Bresilien 5.20 Oscar Asche
Market Rasen 2.00 Velkera 2.35 South Seas 3.10 Anytime Will Do 3.45 Rouge Vif 4.20 San Benedeto 4.55 Getaway North 5.30 Dont Go Gentle
Wolverhampton 5.05 Sayesse (nap) 5.40 King Of Arms 6.15 Yamato 6.45 Chamomile 7.15 With Caution 7.45 Paths Of Glory 8.15 Shauyra