Ascot Champions Day tips: Full betting guide

For fans of Flat racing the dreaded long winter nights might be fast looming, but before that remains the small matter of Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot. 

The meeting essentially does what it says in the title by bringing together the stars of the season in one final pulsating event before the curtain moves closer to being drawn on another turf campaign. 

Usually soft ground horses tend to excel at the meeting, but following the recent dry spell, it has left conditions much quicker, meaning that those that have excelled during the warmer months have the ideal conditions for one last hurrah. 

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Without doubt the highlight of the meeting is the Qipco British Champion Stakes, which will see the Aidan O’Brien-trained Delacroix and Ombudsman, from the John and Thady Gosden yard, settle their score once and for all. 

It currently stands at one all between the pair, with Delacroix defeating Ombudsman in the Coral Eclipse before Ombudsman reversed the form in the Juddmonte International at York. 

However, the pair will not have it their own way with the likes of this year’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes hero Calandagan and the returning Economics, the brilliant winner of last year’s Irish Champion Stakes. 

Before that exciting battle commences there are four further Group One contests that will take place - the pick of them being the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile. 

Favourite for the race is this year’s Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Field Of Gold, who will bid to bounce back from a below-par effort in the Visit Qatar Sussex Stakes at Goodwood for the Gosden team. 

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Heading the opposition is Karl Burke’s talented filly Fallen Angel, who is chasing a fourth successive Group One win, and Rosallion, who is out to make it sixth time lucky at the top table this season after a string of near misses. 

While the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup looks there for the taking for 2023 winner, and this year’s Ascot Gold Cup hero, Trawlerman, who hails from the Gosden yard, the Qipco British Champions Sprint is a much more wide-open affair. 

Lazzat, winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at the Royal meeting in June, is on a recovery mission after two subsequent defeats, while chief rival Big Mojo arrives in top form having won last month’s Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock Park.

Throw into the mix the always competitive Balmoral Handicap at the end of the card and the newly created British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes, it makes the meeting one not to be missed.

FIRST.com's Ascot Champions Day top tip

Ombudsman to win the Qipco Champion Stakes at 2/1 with Ladbrokes

The Qipco British Champion Stakes arguably looks like the race of the season on paper, but it is a contest that can go the way of Ombudsman. 

The John and Thady Gosden-trained colt was a brilliant winner of the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at the Royal meeting over the same course and distance in June, before being outdone by Delacroix in the Coral Eclipse at Sandown Park. 

On that occasion Ombudsman was faced with a tight turnaround, which clearly didn’t play to his strengths, as he demonstrated when reversing the form on the back of a longer break in the Juddmonte International at York. 

After resisting the temptation to run in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown last month, which went the way of Delacroix, Ombudsman arrives having had a nice gap between now and his last run. 

With his connections opting to supplement a pacemaker, as they did at York, they can be rewarded with Group One number three of the campaign in the prestigious mile and a quarter test with the son of Night Of Thunder.

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Extra Ascot Champions Day tips

Last year’s Betfair Sprint Cup winner Montassib has missed the bulk of the campaign, but he looks primed to run well in the Qipco British Champion Sprint Stakes. 

The William Haggas-trained seven-year-old made an eye-catching return to action over five furlongs, which is a trip too short for him, in the Group Three Dubai International World Airport Trophy at Newbury, when finishing a fast-closing third. 

Although he would have preferred a bit more juice in the ground, that run will have blown away the cobwebs and put him spot on for this test. 

He arrives as a fresh horse, unlike most of his rivals, and although he could only finish fifth in the race last year, he can take closer order this time around. 

Montassib to win the Qipco British Champion Sprint Stakes at 13/2 with Coral. 

Connections of Estrange opted to take their filly out of the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe earlier this month after she was handed a draw closer to the car park than the running rail at Longchamp. 

However, their decision can be rewarded with the David O’Meara-trained four-year-old securing a breakthrough Group One victory in the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes. 

Although her previous start at the level saw her finish second best behind subsequent Arc runner-up Minnie Hauk in the Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks up at York, it was effort that can be marked up with it coming on ground that was far too lively for her. 

While she will not get hock deep ground here, it will have enough give in it to allow her to be seen to a better effect at finishing her race off properly. 

Last year’s winner Kalpana is feared, but having only run 13 days ago in the Arc, she might just feel the effects of that run against a filly that arrives relatively fresh. 

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Estrange to win the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at 4/1 with Betfred.

If there is one race likely to throw up a big priced winner then it is the Balmoral Handicap with several recent winners of the mile cavalry charge returning with double-figure price tags. 

The likes of Native Warrior and Crown Of Oaks could be Group race winners in the making, but at a bigger price Oliver Show is worth chancing. 

He ran well to finish second in the William Hill Lincoln at the start of the season, before undergoing a wind operation.

His next effort in the Buckingham Palace Stakes over seven furlongs at the Royal meeting can be forgiven as he was slow away. 

Although three more defeats have followed since that run he stayed on encouragingly over seven furlongs, having been denied a clear run, to not be beaten far into seventh over seven furlongs at Newcastle last month. 

The return to a mile is a plus, and if he can break well, he should be up there in the mix come the end of the race. 

Oliver Show, each-way, in the Balmoral Handicap, five places at 25/1 with Coral.

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Odds correct at the time of writing.