Ascot's QIPCO British Champions Day features five Group 1 races

Ascot will stage QIPCO British Champions Day on Saturday, Oct. 18, featuring five Group 1 races and a seven-race card that brings together four of the world’s top 10 turf horses for the season’s decisive end-of-year contests. The 1.3 million pound Champion Stakes over 10 furlongs and the 1.1 million pound Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile headline the meeting, which also introduces a new 250,000 race for two-year-olds at the start of the card.

The Champion Stakes has attracted a high-class field led by the world’s top-rated horse, Ombudsman, who heads 15 confirmations for the 10-furlong contest. Ombudsman will renew his rivalry with Delacroix, trained by Aidan O’Brien, after the pair traded victories through the summer, each winning Group 1s against the other. Calandagan, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner and last year’s runner-up in the Champion Stakes, is also confirmed and is expected to be a major player. Economics, a Group 1 winner who missed part of the season after being found to have bled in last year’s running, could make his seasonal return in the race.

Field Of Gold, a three-year-old colt rated among the world’s best and owned by Juddmonte, is...