The British Classics represent the best of the three year old’s in their generation. As the old adage goes, the fastest horse wins the Guineas, the luckiest wins the Derby, and the best horse wins the St Leger. But what calibre of classic winner does it take to win a classic, and a race on Champions Day?
Of the 75 British Classic winners since the inaugural 2011 British Champions Day card, only 20 of those winners have gone on to contest Champions Day that season.
Remarkably, just four Classic winners have gone on to win on Champions Day, albeit Kew Gardens did win the Long Distance Cup a season after his St Leger success. The first Champions Day meeting got off to a successful start for the Classic winners, as the only two winners to contest Champions Day both won their respective events.
Frankel followed up his remarkable 2000 Guineas win with a career best performance beating Excelebration by four lengths in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and he took the Champion Stakes a year later. Dancing Rain followed up her Oaks performance with a comfortable victory in the Fillies & Mares Stakes.
Despite a solid start for the Classic and Champions Day double, five further attempts would end in defeat. It wasn’t until 2015 that the feat would be repeated as the St Leger winner Simple Verse won the Fillies & Mares.
A year later, Minding would cap off a memorable season by landing the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes after winning both the 1000 Guineas and the Oaks.
The 1000 & 2000 Guineas
The Guineas has been the main source of disappointment for the Classic winners following up on Champions Day, with eight of the 10 winners of either the 1000 and 2000 Guineas failing to deliver.
Dawn Approach (2/1F), Night Of Thunder (2/1F), Gleneagles (9/4), Galileo Gold (11/2), Churchill (9/2), Magna Grecia (13/2), Mother Earth (33/1), Chaldean (10/1), all failed to emulate Frankel and Minding in their Ascot doubles.
It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise as to why the Guineas has largely failed to conjure up a winner on Champions Day however. The contests are staged in May, and to keep a thoroughbred at their peak at the highest level until October is some feat. Many of the aforementioned would go on to contest the Curragh, the Royal meeting, Goodwood, Deauville, or even stepping up in trip for an Eclipse in between.
The Epsom Oaks & The Derby
The Classics at Epsom have seen nine of their winners attempt to follow up on Champions Day, with just two successful, both Oaks winners. Dancing Rain took the Fillies & Mares, while Minding dropped back to a mile to win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
Of the other Oaks winners; Was (10/1), Talent (7/2JF), Anapurna (6/1) and Snowfall (8/11F) all failed to complete the double.
Of the Derby winners; Ruler Of The World (13/2), Serpentine (18/1) and Adayar (5/2) couldn’t follow up either.
There are, of course, mitigating factors as to why it’s proved difficult to translate Epsom success to Ascot. Firstly, they are taking on the older, more strengthened form of middle-distance types. As well as that, Anapurna had won the Prix du Royallieu just two weeks earlier, and Snowfall had contested the Arc on the back of four other Group 1’s, winning three of them.
The Derby trio had to prove they had the gears to step down in trip to ten furlongs in the Champion Stakes. Ruler of The World was third behind Farhh and Cirrus Des Aigles, colts with much more battle hardened experience in a generation of world class ten furlong horses. Serpentine had nicked a weak Derby from the front, and was facing similarly hardened sorts such as Addeybb and Magical. Adayar was another surprise Derby winner, and he perhaps left his race in the Arc.
Ultimately, Derby runners are often primed for peaking during a summer campaign, and being able to not only sustain that ability but take on the elders down in trip is a nigh on impossible feat.
The St Leger
Only two winners of the St Leger have contested Champions Day in the same season, unsurprisingly given the only viable contest for them is the Long Distance Cup. However, Simple Verse defied that logic as not only was she a very rare winning filly of the Doncaster classic, she followed that up down in trip in the Fillies & Mares.
The other contestant, Eldar Eldarov, was well beaten behind Trueshan. Historically, winners of the Long Distance Cup have been the hardened older types, thus a St Leger winner following up at Ascot particularly given the month gap between the two gruelling contests is a rare feat.
Can Highwayman defy history?
The appearances of Classic winners on Champions Day have dwindled in recent years, and just one of this year’s victors will attempt to follow up at Ascot. Highwayman was a surprise winner of the St Leger, and he’s just the third winner of the race to contest Champions Day in the same season.
While there is no Scandinavia in here, Caballo De Mar will prove a tough nut to crack if in a similar vein of form having defeated the reigning Coolmore stayer in the Prix du Cadran last time out.
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