Ascot’s small but perfectly formed Champions Day fixture monopolises the ITV Racing coverage this Saturday and rightly so with four Group 1 contests on the six-race showreel.
The main event on the card promises to be a spectacular running of the British Champion Stakes (3.55) with the 123-rated Economics taking on the 125-rated Calandagan and we have a strong view. On the undercard a repeat winner and a couple of quality fillies are entrusted with the hard-earned.
Ascot Champions Day 2024 tips – Saturday October 19
1.55 Ascot – Art Power to win (each-way) @ 20/1
2.35 Ascot – Tiffany to win @ 7/1
3.15 Ascot – Tamfana to win @ 3/1
3.55 Ascot – Calandagan to win @ 13/8
Bet on the latest horse racing odds at Betzone
Last year’s Champions Sprint winner gets conditions to run another stormer
Kinross could well go off favourite in the British Champions Sprint Stakes (1.55) having finished a neck second and first in the last two runnings, yet last year’s winner ART POWER trades at a dismissive 20/1.
On the one hand the disparity in price is understandable, Kinross has been running consistently well all season, whereas Tim Easteby’s grey comes into this off the back of a 16/16 finish at Haydock last time.
However, Art Power finished 17/18 at Longchamp before winning last year’s edition and the return to the soft ground he won this Group 1 event 12 months ago gives him his ideal conditions in a race where he’s finished 1-8-4-4 in his last three attempts.
Last year’s Champions Day saw front runners very hard to peg back on soft ground as Trawlerman, Art Power, Big Rock and Poptronic proved impossible to pass. Art Power’s run style can see him put up another bold bid in ideal conditions with placing very possible and victory far from out of the question.
Tip: 1.55 Ascot – Art Power to win (each-way) @ 20/1
Typical Sir Mark Prescott improver underestimated after near-perfect season
The British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (2.35) is priced up as if the up-and-coming Andrew Balding filly Kalpana will be tough to oppose, but her pedigree suggests soft ground could be an equaliser.
Sire Study Of Man has a modest 16% strike rate on the expected going with his progeny, while dam Zero Gravity never raced on ground worse than good and Kalpana’s damsire Dansili only has an 18% strike rate with his offspring on soft versus a 37% win ratio on good and good-to-firm ground.
For those minded to oppose the favourite, TIFFANY stands out like a sore thumb. Like so many horses under Sir Mark Prescott’s tutelage she has improved markedly during her four-year-old campaign and may have won all four of her races this term but for a slip rounding the bend at Haydock two runs back.
By Farrh out of a Sadlers Wells mare, she won a listed race on soft ground at Baden-Baden on her first run beyond 1m2f and arrives at this juncture off the back of a Group 2 win at the same track last time out.
The second in that contest won at listed level on her next outing to advertise the strength of the form and it would be no surprise to see Tiffany improve again on going she will appreciate more than the favourite.
Tip: 2.35 Ascot – Tiffany to win @ 15/2
Made-for-a-mile Menusier filly is fancied to claim first open company Group 1
The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (3.15) looks like a notably competitive edition with no standout favourite on a par with Paddington (2023), Inspiral (2022) or Baeed (2021).
William Haggas’ lightly-raced four-year-old Quddwah, is a fascinating entrant having lost his unbeaten tag with a credible fourth on his first tilt at Group 1 company last time out. That was just his fifth career run and there should be more to come, but the soft ground has to be a question mark.
That can’t be said of TAMFANA who claimed what had already seemed a long overdue top-flight success against her own sex in the Sun Chariot at Newmarket on her most recent run.
A 7f Group 3 win on heavy as a two-year-old and a close fourth in this year’s G1 Grand Prix de Paris over 1m4f on soft suggest the likely going will be fine for her and the weight she gets (6lbs from older colts, 3lbs from three-year-old males), maker her joint best in the race on official ratings.
Tip: 3.15 Ascot – Tamfana to win @ 4/1
French raider to land Champion Stakes on strength of City Of Troy second
It would be remiss not to weigh in on the day’s highlight the Group 1 British Champion Stakes (3.50) which pits two very classy individuals against one another in the shape of 123-rated favourite Economics and 125-rated Calandagan.
The former beat off a host of highly-rated rivals in the Irish equivalent of this race at Leopardstown but the suspicion is that City Of Troy may just be better than every one of that chasing pack, which included Auguste Rodin and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Economics is sure to improve again after that run but Calandagan’s length-second to City Of Troy in the International Stakes promises even more.
Towards the rear in that York Group 1, the French raider made length after length on the 124-rated front running winner and only narrowly failed to reel him in, suggesting that granted a better early position he could have come out on top.
The BHA handicapper gave him a mark of 125 after the race suggesting he viewed Francis-Henri Graffard’s gelding as the best horse in the race. Also rated 2lbs higher than Economics he looks the one to side with being the longer odds of the pair.
