British Champions Day

We should have seen it coming really. Night Of Thunder burst onto the scene in 2019 to be champion first-season sire with seven stakes winners to his name. Not all leading freshmen go on to put themselves into contention for champion sire honours, of course, but six years later this is exactly what the prolific Night Of Thunder has done, and he looks almost certain now to follow the achievement of his own sire Dubawi, who was champion in 2022. Dubawi, who turns 24 in January, took longer to get...

QIPCO British Champions Day will be available to view in 170 territories via 40 broadcasters courtesy of Racecourse Media Group (RMG) and HBA Media (HBA) working with Ascot Racecourse. Fox Sports, Fanduel and Sportsnet will show the meeting in North America, while ESPN / Disney + in South America and Caribbean, and SuperSport in Africa will display the signal. The Middle East region will be served by the Dubai Racing Channel and Yas TV (Abu Dhabi), while the Far East will enjoy coverage via Green Channel and Netkeiba (streaming service...

The majority of the season's stars have held their ground after the latest acceptance stage for Britain's richest race day, the QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot on October 18. In the £1.3-million QIPCO Champion Stakes, the 2024 winner Anmaat (Awtaad) will lock horns with the G1 Princes Of Wales's Stakes/G1 Juddmonte International Stakes hero Ombudsman (Night Of Thunder) and G1 Eclipse Stakes winner Delacroix (Dubawi). Also entered in that contest is the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Calandagan (Gleneagles), 2024 G1 Irish Champion Stakes scorer...

Invincible Spirit's Marvelman has been sold to Bond Thoroughbred Limited, the organisation's Charlie Bond revealed. The 3-year-old G2 Park Stakes hero is likely to be supplemented to the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on British Champions Day, October 18 at a cost of £70,000. Trained by Andrew Balding, the colt was winning his first stakes race at Doncaster last weekend and was previously owned by Mr and Mrs Rex Gorell. Bred by Gigginstown House Stud, Marvelman sold for 140,000gns out of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale to Balding from the...

Whether or not you liked the 'Bill and Ben' analogies of the Racing For Change days, or the removal of the Champion Stakes from Newmarket to Ascot, you cannot fail to like the man who played a part in some of these attempts to modernise and market racing: Rod Street.  This QIPCO British Champions Day - the 14th since the significant shake-up to the autumnal racing programme in 2011 - will be Street's last as CEO of British Champions Series. He stepped down from his role as CEO of Great...

America's Day at the Races will present live, on-site coverage of the 103rd Far Hills Steeplechase Race Meeting Saturday afternoon from Moorland Farm in Far Hills, New Jersey. New York Racing Association host Acacia Clement will anchor the coverage from Far Hills and will be joined by analysts Joe Clancy and Richard Migliore. The Far Hills card will offer $720,000 in total purses and include five stakes among six races. The highlight of the card is the $250,000 G1 American Grand National, the richest race on the National Steeplechase Association...

All season we seem to have been marvelling at 'another brilliant ride by Ryan Moore.' But the man himself chuckles at the idea that this has been a special year for him. "I suppose looking back there've been good days, but you only remember the last day," he says. "We didn't win the Arc - so it doesn't feel satisfying at the moment." As he says it, he really is laughing at how a recent disappointment can obscure the glories. This is life in the super-elite of world sport, where...

Tom Marquand is "95% certain" to be aboard multiple Group 1-winning sprinter Perfect Power (Ire) (Ardad {Ire}) in the G1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint S. on Oct. 15, according to owner Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum's racing manager Bruce Raymond. The colt's usual rider, Christophe Soumillon, will be serving part of his 60-day suspension for elbowing another jockey out of the saddle in a race, during that time period. A dual Group 1 winner as a juvenile, the bay's most recent victory was in the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal...

G1 Melbourne Cup heroine Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}) will run in the G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares S. at Ascot on Oct. 15, trainer Francis-Henri Graffard revealed on Tuesday. She will be part of a two-pronged attack in that race for the trainer on QIPCO British Champions Day alongside G1 Prix Vermeille winner Sweet Lady (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}). Unplaced in the G1 Prix Jean Romanet to start her European campaign, the 11-time Group 1 winne ran third in the G2 Prix Foy, and was most...

Shadwell's unbeaten Baaeed (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) is reportedly in good order following his recent home work in advance of what is likely to be his final career jump in the G1 QIPCO Champion S. at Ascot on Oct. 15. The aforementioned 10-furlong contest has always been conditioner William Haggas's preferred option for a final start. The Hills brothers have been putting Baaeed through his paces on the Newmarket gallops alongside some Group 1 stablemates, and the colt appears to have come out of his work with flying colours....

British and Irish racing will participate in 17 World Pool events in 2022 with racing fans from around the world betting on the sport's most prestigious flat racing festivals. The race days have record prize money available of £28.4 million and include Cazoo Oaks Day at Epsom Downs for the first time. As a collaboration of global Totes, World Pool enables racing fans from all over the globe to bet into a single pool. A World Pool "Moment of the Day" will be awarded by an industry representative at the...

Breeders' Cup and Qatar Racing have entered into a multi-year partnership that designates Qatar Racing as the official partner of the $2-million GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, starting with this year's running at Del Mar Nov. 6. The deal also adds two races to the 2021 Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" Challenge Series--the G1 QIPCO Champion S. and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. (Sponsored by QIPCO), to be held on British Champions Day Saturday, Oct. 16 at Ascot Racecourse, will offer automatic berths into the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf...