Champions Day at Ascot is set to live up to its name on Saturday with its showpiece contest delivering a field worthy of the name. The Champion Stakes line-up can lay claim to being the strongest top level race in Europe this season and GG tipster Joe Napier has the privilege of previewing the contest below with his verdict.
Favourites
The 2025 Champion Stakes has its own “Big Three”, with the added intrigue of the entire trio being trained in different nations for their respective powerful owners. For Godolphin and Great Britain, there is Ombudsman, trained by John & Thady Gosden. His Prince Of Wales’s success at the royal meeting was emphatic, as was his tactical masterpiece in the Juddmonte International Stakes at York last time out. He is yet to finish outside of the top two and brings the highest rating, so deserves his mantle of favouritism.
Then again, the score is 1-1 between himself and Ireland’s chief representative Delacroix, owned by Coolmore and trained by Aidan O’Brien. Despite being a year younger, he has the edge of racing experience over Ombudsman, who he beat from the clouds in Sandown’s Coral-Eclipse. He was subsequently well-held in the Juddmonte by his big rival, but got back to winning ways in grand style in the Irish Champion Stakes. He will be trained to the minute as he seeks to become O’Brien’s first winner of this contest since Magical in 2019.
Lastly, there is Calandagan for Francis-Henri Graffard and France. Owned by the Aga Khan Studs, he was cruelly denied in this 12 months ago among a string of second-placed efforts, but he has swiftly left those behind of late, landing two Group 1s over 1m4f at Saint-Cloud, and then at Ascot in the King George. The form of those contests is strong and he may even be better over 1m2f, so is worthy of butting in on the conversation for leading the market.
Contenders
There is a sizeable gap between the leading trio and the rest of the field in the betting, but in an ordinary year Economics would be a much shorter price even accounting for his year-long layoff. William Haggas’ charge had struck up a brilliant winning sequence in 2024, including winning the Irish Champion Stakes that year before finishing a disappointing sixth in this race on soft ground. The livelier surface this year will be a help, but being off for 364 days against these rivals should prove too long an absence.
Almaqam has been racing regularly this term, including defeating Ombudsman in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes, though he has been held in Group 2 company since. The pacemakers in this race may make it awkward for a horse who has thrived on racing prominently.
Meanwhile, all of Almeric, First Look and Fox Legacy have struck up impressive winning sequences of late. The first-named is the least exposed runner in the field after only four starts, but made light work of a decent Ayr Listed contest last time out. Ironically, he may want more rain on what is set to be a drier Champions Day than normal, which could also harm First Look, another French raider and former Prix Du Jockey Club runner-up who is on a four-timer. He would still need to step up on his latest Group 2 victory at Longchamp regardless, but is improving again.
Fox Legacy, on the other hand, has thrived since joining Andrew Balding. Handicap successes at Newmarket and York came either side of a luckless sixth in the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot when drawn on the wrong side of the track, but the four-year-old won by a wide margin at Glorious Goodwood against Group quality opposition. He looks the liveliest challenger beyond the big three.
Outsiders
With the exception of Prague, a talented horse in his own right, but likely to be outclassed here on this season’s form even if improving for the step back up to 1m2f, this section may as well be entitled “pacemakers”. That unfortunate role should be played by a representative each for Godolphin and Ballydoyle in Devil’s Advocate and Mount Kilimanjaro, rated 109 and 108 respectively. Both have proven capable of useful form, but a repeat of Qirat’s Sussex Stakes antics looks unlikely from either here.
Verdict
While Delacroix gained his measure late on in the Eclipse at Sandown, the two best performances over 1m2f this season have come from OMBUDSMAN. A repeat of either, especially his emphatic Prince Of Wales’s effort at the royal meeting, will ensure he is very difficult to beat. The hat-trick seeking Calandagan is feared most with it plausible he could unlock even more back at 1m2f after Group 1 wins over 1m4f the last twice, while Fox Legacy and Almeric are intriguing contenders at long odds, with the former fancied to muscle in on the fray.
- Ombudsman
- Calandagan
- Fox Legacy
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