Britain’s richest raceday will return to Ascot in under three weeks’ time, British Champions Day brings a close to the 2025 flat season.
Seven races, highlighted by five Group One races, will captivate the eyes of the racing world, as they hone in on Berkshire.
Over £4m in prize money will be awarded on a day that will see Champions crowned, with the showpiece event running at 16:05 – the Qipco Champions Stakes.
A mile and three furlongs await horses looking to etch their name into history and win a share of £1.3m in awarded prize money.
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Anmaat
This year will see trainer Owen Burrows look to become the first trainer since John Gosden to win the race in consecutive years.
Gosden did so with Cracksman and Burrows will look to emulate him by training Shadwell Estate-owned Anmaat to repeat successes in the race.
After enduring a season of near misses, he currently trades at 7/1 to earn his first win of the season.
He has finished second in all three of his runs this season, all in Group One company and over a distance of one mile and two furlongs.
His Tattersalls Gold Cup second was preceded by two excellent runs in defeat at Royal Ascot and at the Irish Champions Festival – finishing second to Ombudsman and trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Delacroix.
Blooming strong
On Anmaat’s chances, Burrows said: “It looks a blooming strong Champion if they all rock up, but we won’t run away from them.
“Hopefully Ascot will turn out proper soft ground like last year. Soft ground is right up his street and it was incredible how much that ground dried out the other day (his previous run).
“Everyone kept saying to me it hadn’t stopped raining all week in Ireland, but it was quite a warmish, blowy day.
“I walked it at around 12.30pm and thought it was good to soft, but obviously the race was five hours later and it was probably just on the easier side of good by then.
“You need everything in your favour in those Group One races, as they’re hard to win!”
Ombudsman
At the top of the market is the re-opposing Ombudsman (7/4), who will line-up to face both Delacroix (5/1) and Anmaat again.
The Prince Of Wales’s Stakes winner went on to lose to Delacroix in Coral-Eclipse, before making amends when the two met at York, in their latest clash.
Following that win in the Juddmonte International, Gosden said: “He’s getting better and better, has trained well and was unbeaten last year.
“His only defeat this year was in the muddling Eclipse and he’s a proper horse. The two obvious races for him are the Irish Champion and Ascot for Champions Day.
“It will be Sheikh Mohammed’s decision if he stays in training but he is a sportsman.”
Calandagan
French raider Calandagan is the other within the top four the market and at 11/4, he splits Ombudsman and Delacroix.
Trainer Francis Graffard’s gelding is set for his first run since winning the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes, at Royal Ascot.
It was the second of two wins this season, with the other coming in a Group One at Saint-Cloud – which followed two second-placed efforts first at Meydan, then in the Coronation Stake, at the Epsom Derby meeting.
Those runs make up his career starts since finishing second in this race last season, as his trainer looks to become the first French trainer to win the race since 2021.
Almaqam
Trainer Ed Walker’s Almaqam is next in the betting (8/1) following a season in which he has won one of his four starts.
That win came on his second outing of the campaign and at the expense of Ombudsman, when the two clashed at Sandown, in May.
He has placed second and third in his two subsequent starts, both in Group Two races, first at York and then at Longchamp.
Owner Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum’s colt is yet to win a Group One race, having finished sixth in last year’s St James’s Palace Stakes, on his only other try in this grade.
Almeric, Economics and Whirl make up the next three in the market, though their 16/1 odds suggest that they will apply their trade elsewhere.
READ MORE: British Champions Day: Dates, how to watch on TV, trainers and jockeys to watch
