Big trio set for Champions Day showdown at Ascot

Three of the world’s top-rated racehorses – Ombudsman, Delacroix and Calandagan – have been confirmed to meet in a blockbuster Champion Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.

Ombudsman, number one in the rankings, swooped late to beat Delacroix (rated joint sixth) in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes before the tables were turned in the Juddmonte International – and the pair now meet for a third time.

King George winner Calandagan, who is joint ninth in the global rankings, joins them, along with last year’s Irish Champion Stakes winner Economics who races for the first time in a year.

The Champion Stakes headlines five top-level Group One contests on a seven-race card on Qipco British Champions Day – the country’s richest raceday with a total of £4.35m prize money on offer.

Ombudsman’s stablemate Field Of Gold will run in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes for trainer John Gosden, whose strong hand on the day also features Gold Cup victor Trawlerman in the Long Distance Cup.

Owners Godolphin ran a pacemaker to assist Ombudsman in the Juddmonte at York and do so again in the £1.3m Champion Stakes, with Devil’s Advocate supplemented at a cost of £75,000.

Field Of Gold was an impressive winner of the Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot before a surprise defeat in the Sussex Stakes, after which he was found to be lame.

Hoping to go one better in the QEII will be Rosallion, trained by Richard Hannon, after three narrow top-level defeats this year, while Karl Burke’s filly Fallen Angel comes into the race off a Group One hat-trick.

Kalpana, runner-up to Calandagan in the King George, is among the favourites in the Fillies and Mares Stakes having finished seventh in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Andrew Balding, second in the British trainers’ championship behind Delacroix’s trainer Aidan O’Brien, saddles Kalpana while his other hopes include Almeric and Fox Legacy in the Champion Stakes and Never So Brave and Marvelman in the QEII.

“Ascot is a fantastic way to end the season at the world’s greatest racecourse,” he told BBC Radio Berkshire.

“It’s certainly been an amazing year for us and hopefully we can add to it on Saturday.”