A Qipco Champions Day that had it all

The dust has settled after a memorable Qipco Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday in which we saw two massive priced outsiders land shock Group 1 victories, and a superb performance from Calandagan in a high-class renewal of the Champion Stakes, writes Paul Alster.

Even before it started, this year’s Champions Day at Ascot was that little bit different from the norm. There was no mud flying in all directions as the dry autumn served to provide faster than usual underfoot conditions meaning that many horses who might otherwise have been roughed off for the rest of the season had been kept in training to try their luck at a meeting normally reserved for those who revel in testing ground.

There was nothing unexpected though about the opening stayers event won by the admirable Trawlerman, who was chased home by his John & Thady Gosden-trained stable companion Sweet William. In the juvenile conditions race that followed, Aidan O’Brien’s Mission Central won nicely and all seemed to be going pretty much according to the form book with fancied horses dominating.

Things changed drastically in the Group 1 Qipco Champions Sprint for which French star Lazzat was made clear favourite at 2/1. It would have been enough of a surprise for the Stuart Williams-trained Quinault to keep going for third at 66/1, but after Lazzat had stormed into the lead inside the two furlong from home marker the jolly old favourite appeared home and hosed. That was until the 200/1 rank outsider Powerful Glory came storming through from last to first under a tremendous Jamie Spencer ride to defeat the Gallic raider by a neck and stun all those present at Ascot, and the millions watching at home on the telly.

In a season where there has been no dominant sprinter it wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility that something might pop up at a fair price, but very, very few could have anticipated that the Richard Fahey-trained Powerful Glory (pictured below), a horse who had been eighth of nine at Haydock in May, and last of five at Beverley in late-September on his only other run this term, would turn the form book so completely upside down to land the longest priced Group 1 success in British racing history.

Normal service was resumed in the Group 1 British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes when the classy Kalpana, trained by Andrew Balding and ridden by Colin Keane, got the better of the improving Cheveley Park Stud-owned Estrange to repeat her win in the race twelve months earlier.

The Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes that followed would provide punters with another unexpected body blow as the unconsidered Charles Hills-trained Cicero’s Gift come burrowing up the far rail to land a 100/1 success under Jason Watson, from The Lion In Winter and Alkazi. The much touted trio of favourite Fields Of Gold, Rosallion, and Never So Brave finishing fifth, sixth and seventh respectively, possibly racing on the slightly slower centre of the track. For neutral observers this was a heartening result for Hills who has had a modest season by his standards, and who only a few months ago lost his father, Barry Hills, a true training great.

Billed by some as the ‘Race Of The Season’, given the shocks that preceded it many of us were wondering if the much anticipated three-way fight between Ombudsman, Calandagan and Delacroix in a stellar renewal of the Qipco Champion Stakes would live up to its billing. It did, and with a bit to spare.

As the pacemakers were reeled in two furlongs out, the Gosdens Ombudsman struck for home stalked by the strong travelling French star Calandagan. Delacroix was slightly outpaced at that point but would stay on to press the much improved Almaqam for third, but Calandagan took dead aim at Ombudsman and when asked to go and win his race under Mickael Barzalona that is precisely what Francis-Henri Graffard’s star did, powering away to win with a bit to spare.

It was, quite simply, a fine victory for a horse who is getting better and better. For racing fans the great is news is that because he is a gelding, Calandagan will be back for more next season. We’ll have to see if Ombudsman – who has enjoyed a marvellous campaign with wins in the Coral Eclipse Stakes and the Juddmonte International – will race on, but it seems certain that Irish Champion Stakes winner Delacroix will now be retired to stud.

William Haggas, who had suffered a couple of reverses with runners in Australia earlier in the day and whose fine colt Economics was found to have bled after finishing eighth in the Champion Stakes on his first start for a year, signed off on a better note when his improving Crown Of Thorns, ridden by Tom Marquand, held on by a neck from dead-heaters Holloway Boy and Ebt’s Guard in the concluding Balmoral Handicap over the straight mile.

With crowd figures up on twelve months earlier, and a seven-race card that spanned the gamut of emotions and predictability, Qipco Champions Day 2025 was a real spectacle. I am already looking forward to more of the same in October 2026.

Paul Alster has broadcast and reported on the British racing industry for four decades as a commentator, journalist, presenter, betting correspondent, SP Returner, tipster and form analyst, among other things.