Who will win the British Champions Day Trophies – Part 2
First – news on the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and it has emerged that Excelebration (below), trained by Marco Botti and owned by Guilano Manfredini and Coolmore will also line up against Frankel. It had been assumed that the horse, who finished behind Frankel in both the Greenham Stakes and the St James’s Palace Stakes earlier in the year would swerve another clash with Henry Cecil’s superstar. But, after his impressive wins at Newbury and Longchamp, his connections have decided to have another crack at Frankel.
Trainer Botti commented,
“We are very pleased with the horse and he looks in good order since he came back from France. We are hoping to close the gap, whether he would be good enough to beat him, who knows?
“The horse is much stronger and he has done really well since he had a break after the St James’s Palace.”
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The QIPCO Champions Stakes
The feature race on Champions Day is the Champions Stakes itself and unsurprisingly the race looks set to feature a showdown between some of the leading owners in Europe.
The best place to start with the main contenders is the Prix De L’Arc De Triomphe – as the field looks set to feature two horses who ran in this year’s Arc and one which bypassed the race at the last minute.
Topping the bill is Coolmore’s So You Think. The ex-Australian trained star was a leading fancy for last week’s Paris showpiece, but the race conspired against him. From his wide starting stall, So You Think ended up positioned way too far back in the field in the early stages and although the horse made significant ground in the straight, he could never really get into the race, eventually finishing 4th behind the runaway winner Danedream (see picture below). It would be stretching the imagination to suggest that he could have beaten the winner with a better ride, but he looked like the second best horse on the day and Coolmore will be itching to prove the point at Ascot next Saturday.
Also set to turn out in the Champion Stakes is Reliable Man, but he finished a very disappointing 15th in the Arc and will have to show dramatic improvement to win at Ascot.
Of far more interest is Nathaniel (discussed previously in the Arc previews), owned by Lady Rothschild, who skipped the Arc due to fast ground but will now take his chance at Ascot. As we have noted previously, we still don’t really know how strong Nathaniel’s King George victory was and Workforce’s (who was second in the King George) disappointing run in Paris perhaps added further doubts as to whether Nathaniel can yet be ranked alongside the best of his generation.
The owner with the strongest hand in the Champion Stakes is undoubtedly Prince Khalid Abdullah (below celebrating last year’s Arc win), who is likely to be represented by both Twice Over and Midday.
If Abdullah’s QEII contender Frankel is all about youthful brilliance, then his Champions Stakes runners are all about top class professionalism. Both Twice Over and Midday have been there and done it at the top level – with Twice Over having 4 Group 1 wins to his name (including two Champion Stakes victories in 2009 and 2010) while Midday boasts an incredible 6 wins in the highest grade.
Choosing between the pair isn’t straightforward and that point was demonstrated in this year’s Juddmonte International (a British Champions Series race sponsored by Prince Khalid Abdullah’s breeding operation, Juddmonte Farms), where Twice Over (below in green cap) just got the better of Midday (pink cap) in a thrilling battle.
And what of Sheikh Mohammed? Despite another relatively disappointing year for his Godolphin operation, the Sheikh can never be written off – and he will field an interesting contender for the Champions Stakes in Dubai Prince.
Dubai Prince was one of the most exciting two year olds of last year, but suffered an injury after he was transferred to the Godolphin operation. An impressive win in his recent comeback race at Newbury raised hopes that this talented horse retained his ability, but the Champion Stakes will be the acid test and the Sheikh will be hoping that this horse can put his operation back into the limelight.
Next week: The final fields and verdicts for the big Champions Day clashes. Which owner will triumph in the Champions Stakes – and can anything or anyone stop the mighty Frankel?
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