A standing-room-only train journey down to Ascot on Saturday afforded plenty of time to consider both the continuing popularity of British Champions Day eight years after its arrival in the calendar, and the woeful inability of South West Trains to offer an adequate service on a day that has drawn a bigger crowd than the King George in July every year since 2014. The final attendance figure of 29,029 – a fair proportion of whom seemed to be in my carriage – was a few hundred down on 2018, but still impressive given a very mixed weather forecast for the afternoon and, if we’re honest, a slight lack of “star” names in the Group One events when compared to some previous years.
In the end, this made no difference to anyone, just as the decision to switch three races to the hurdles went unnoticed as soon as Kew Gardens and Stradivarius settled down to battle it out in the Long Distance Cup. Never mind the weather or the cast list, a crowd of around 30,000 for Champions Day is now apparently guaranteed – a huge increase on the 12,500 who saw the last Champion Stakes at Newmarket in 2010.
Just over 32,000 were at Ascot to see Frankel conclude his flawless career in the same race two years later, a Champions Day record that is unlikely to be beaten any time soon. But at the same time, this could be seen as evidence that the old argument that “horses like Frankel are the lifeblood of the sport” is slightly wide of the mark. They make a difference, for sure, but perhaps not quite as big a difference as some might suggest.
Champions Day has built up a loyal, reliable attendance of around 30,000 people from pretty much a standing start, and done it less than 10 years. And while Frankel was undoubtedly a big draw in the early years, the success of subsequent seasons is down to a major investment in branding and marketing which has built on Ascot’s status as the top Flat track in the country.
There was a strong sense on that overcrowded train on Saturday that most of the people on it were not just going to the races. They were going to Ascot races, because the name comes with something close to a guarantee of exciting, competitive action in a historic venue. The Ascot brand sells the day as much as the promise of “Champions”.
On that basis, a horse like Magical, the Champion Stakes winner, is as important for the event as a freakish once-in-a-lifetime superstar like Frankel.
Champions Day is the third of four big end-of-season events in the northern hemisphere in the space of eight weeks, starting with Champions Weekend in Ireland and moving on to Ascot via Arc day in Paris before the Breeders’ Cup (which returns this year to Santa Anita in California, always a big favourite with owners and trainers alike).
Few horses are sufficiently robust and reliable to run up to their best at all four – Found, like Magical a filly from the Aidan O’Brien stable, is the only recent example that springs to mind. And Magical could well prove to be another, with the Filly & Mare Turf pencilled in for her final start of the season if she comes out of Saturday’s race as fresh and keen as she has after her previous eight outings this year.
With Champions Day falling between the Arc and the Breeders’ Cup and ground on the softer side of good likely if the first nine seasons are any guide, owners and trainers are always likely to feel that if it is a choice of two from three, France and then America gives their horses more time to recover.
Windsor: 2.00 Field Of Vision 2.30 Rodin 3.00 Blaine 3.30 Data Protection 4.00 Prince Of Harts 4.30 Flying Dragon 5.00 Milan Reef
Plumpton 2.10 Avarchie 2.40 Agent Westy 3.10 Magen’s Moon 3.40 Samarquand 4.10 Rosy World 4.40 Dont Be Robin 5.10 Heavenly Promise
Pontefract 2.20 Guipure 2.50 Hidden Spell 3.20 Glasses Up (nap)
3.50 King Carney (nb) 4.20 King Power 4.50 Arrowtown 5.20 Autumn Flight
Southwell 5.30 Arzaak 6.00 Creativity 6.30 Samovar 7.00 Break The Silence 7.30 Alpha Tauri 8.00 Risk Mitigation 8.30 Fox Shinji
Horses that are able to take their races as Magical does are invaluable in terms of maintaining the quality of the big autumn meetings, and while, unlike Frankel, she will never get a statue at Ascot, she did just as he did on Saturday to maintain the success of Britain’s richest day at the races.