Royal Ascot 2026: Ascot recognised at Longines World Racing Awards 2025

Ascot Racecourse was once again proven as a destination for world-class racing at the Longines World Racing Awards 2025. 

The QIPCO Champion Stakes, the feature race on QIPCO British Champions Day, was named the joint-best race in the world alongside the Japan Cup in Association with Longines. 

The 2025 renewal saw the world’s best racehorse, Calandagan, triumph in a pulsating contest that lived up to the pre-race hype.

With Calandagan topping the rankings, it means that from 2018 to 2025, seven of the world’s top turf racehorses (including ties) have run at Ascot in the year they were crowned.

World class racing

All in all, in 2025, eight of the top 15 turf horses in the world ran at Ascot, including Ombudsman, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner.

Field Of Gold, who won the St James’s Palace Stakes.

Also, Almaqam and Delacroix (third and fourth respectively in the QIPCO Champion Stakes behind Calandagan and Ombudsman). 

Four of the 15 ran at Royal Ascot with Anmaat finishing second in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Notable Speech fourth in the Queen Anne Stakes.

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Ascot applauded

The world-class equine talent on show at Ascot last year means that three races were named in the top nine in the world. 

As well as the aforementioned QIPCO Champion Stakes, the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes was the fourth best race of 2025.

The Prince of Wales’s Stakes was joint-eighth, meaning that the course hosted two of the top three intermediate distance turf races in the world last year. 

The Gold Cup, meanwhile, was named the world’s best extended distance (stayers’) race – making up one of the 10 held at Ascot in the top 100 races worldwide.

Felicity Barnard, CEO, Ascot Racecourse, said: “To see Calandagan win the QIPCO Champion Stakes having won the King George the same year topped off a fantastic season for the racecourse. 

“The quality of the racing we saw on QIPCO British Champions Day, and throughout the whole year at Ascot, was something to behold.”

READ MORE: Royal Ascot 2026: Total prize money at Ascot in 2026 will be a record £19.4 million