ASCOT FORECAST IS SOFT ALL OVER: Ascot is expected to be soft for British Champions Day after a drying Friday but more rain overnight. It remains the plan to switch three races (1.20, 2.35 and 3.55) from the heaviest ground on the round course to the inner track. The 1.55, 3.15 and 4.35 will be held on the straight course.
BIG BETDAQ OFFERS ON CHAMPIONS: Two Fortune Cookies, two winners for French jockeys, but seven up for Kyprios. It’s all part of championship day, with BETDAQ bull’s-eye bets at 11.0 and 21.0 in the Champions Sprint, and 18.5 in the Fillies and Mares.
SEVEN-UP SET FOR KYPRIOS
⭕ 1.20 Ascot (British Champions Long Distance Cup, 1m 7.5f) Aidan O’Brien has dropped an armed guard of Continuous, Illinois, Grateful and Grosvenor Square, leaving only the warrior, Kyprios, and his bagman, The Euphrates.
The Euphrates, three-year-old son of Frankel, led until two out in the Curragh St Leger before taking the Irish Cesarewitch from four out, so he can lead or join in late and is clearly on the upgrade.
Kyprios has won the same six stamina tests that he won in 2022 but Aidan O’Brien wants to add this championship, in which he was second to Trawlerman last year at the end of a curtailed season.
The Ascot Gold Cup day ratings of Kyprios (117) and Trawlerman (118), separated a length, are now reversed at 120 Kyprios and 118 Trawlerman for this Saturday showdown, with Trueshan and Coltrane snuffed out by Kyprios in the Prix du Cadran.
A steady improver is Trawlerman’s stablemate, Sweet William, who had his revenge on Trueshan in the Doncaster Cup and now on a 7lb higher mark than when a modest third to Trawlerman and Kyprios last year.
BURKE HAS ELITE SPRINTER
⭕ 1.55 Ascot (British Champions Sprint, 6f) STATS: Five winners out of eight have been draw 1, 3, 4 or 5.
Kinross broke the mold when a group from the high numbers led down the centre in 2022 and last year, out of 8, he again burst into the lead midfield in the final furlong, foiled only by Art Power (drawn 1), who led on and off down the far side.
In the main group, Spycatcher (failed to get a clear run) was third out of 9, and Swingalong (3) was fourth.
They don’t usually come back and win here at age seven and Art Power (from 12) and Kinross out of gate 18 both have different tasks today.
Three-year-olds have won the sprint title three times since 2015, and in July James’s Delight won on the soft at Deauville for Fortune Cookies but, back there for the Meautry, when the ground was even deeper, he was edged out by Spycatcher (gave 3lb) with Beauvatier, not clear run, third.
Karl Burke was always convinced that Spycatcher should have won this Champions Sprint last year but has Billy Loughnane on Swingalong, officially a 6lb better animal than when fourth in 2023.
Elite Status was another Fortune Cookie, who was thought good enough to win the Commonwealth Cup but had a niggling foot injury. Could be well drawn in 3; has not liked it deep but won twice on soft.
If I ignore him now he’s fully fit, and also swerve James’s Delight in 7 under Ryan Moore, I could be deserting ideal three-year-olds for guesswork reasoning.
Betdaq Betting Exchange 11.0 Elite Status, 21 James’s Delight
SO GRATEFUL FOR SOUMILLON
⭕ 2.35 Ascot (British Champions Fillies and Mares) After Christophe Soumillon won the Group-1 Royallieu at Longchamp on Aidan O’Brien’s Grateful, the master of Ballydoyle described him as a world-class rider.
Grateful broke her maiden at the Curragh in June and revealed her stamina when winning over 1m 6f at Fairyhouse but it was Soumillon and the mud at Longchamp that brought out the best in her.
This is only 1m 4f but will feel like further in the testing conditions and there’s no doubt this is a big improver ridden by a master jockey. BETDAQ 18.5 offers taken.
Ryan Moore stays faithful to Content, on whom he won the Yorkshire Oaks after running third in the Pretty Polly three weeks earlier to Bluestocking, who was third in this Fillies and Mares last year.
Stephane Pasquier is also in the line-up with the Grand Prix de Deauville winner (on very soft), Quantanamera.
TAMFANA THE IRON FILLY
⭕ 3.15 Ascot (British Champions Mile) FORTUNE COOKIE Charyn.
Willam Knight is also hooked on French champion, Christophe Soumillon, but he’ll need a miracle ride on Checkandchallenge to make up the 15 lengths he was fourth last year.
Of Charyn you can say ‘late developer’; of Facteur Cheval, ‘he has his ground’ and he’s already been placed in the race, runner-up to Big Rock last year, though at a respectful distance.
Charyn beat Metropolitan in the Jacques Le Marois, after Metropolitan had finished in front Dancing Gemini in the Guineas at Longchamp.
Tamfana (BETDAQ 5.4 this morning), who beat Inspiral in the Sun Chariot the last day, is another one punted this week, and is the filly equivalent of an iron horse, according to the English punter’s favourite Frenchman, David Menuisier.
Aidan O’Brien’s Henry Longfellow was third when Barzalona on Tribalist beat Charyn in the Prix du Moulin (Longchamp soft last month).
ECONOMICS DOUBLE CHAMPION
⭕ 3.55 Ascot (Champion Stakes, 1m 2f) FORTUNE COOKIE: Economics.
Those who say he would have won the Derby may thank William Haggas for his patience if – already only a pound behind City Of Troy – he can become British Champion today to add to his Irish Championship strike over Auguste Rodin.
Economics is a winner on good to soft and his sire, Night Of Thunder, gets the full range of ground preferences in his progeny.
Francis-Henri Graffard, whose King George giant, the gelding Goliath, has to swerve the Arc for the Japan Cup, saddles another gelding, Calandagan, a length runner-up to City of Troy on firm ground in the Juddmonte International, after scoring here at Ascot on firm to complete a hat-trick from his heavy-going double at Longchamp. No grounds for an excuse!
THERE’S A TOP GUY ON ROSE
⭕ 4.35 Ascot (Balmoral Handicap, 1m) Winners at huge odds have landed this in the decade: 12-1, 16-1, 20-1, 25-1 and 80-1.
David O’Meara, responsible for two of those and three of the 10 winners in all, runs three today.
He has them ready cooked from good form of two weeks back (Bopedro and Mirsky third and fifth in a 7f Ascot Challenge Cup) while Padishakh, who has dropped 10lb in the last year, ran well at York last week.
At the same time, over in Ireland, Mexicali Rose – winner of the Galway Mile from a big field like this in July – ran on well, third, in a Listed for Joseph O’Brien.
Maxime Guyon, who will have ridden Facteur Cheval in the British Champions Mile, partners Mexicali Rose (BETDAQ 18.0), yet another French jockey trying to teach our champions a lesson.. or two on the day?
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.20 Ascot (supernap)
BET 20pts win KYPRIOS
1.55 Ascot (win-50 bull’s-eye bets)
BET 5pts win and place ELITE STATUS
BET 2.5pts win and place JAMES’S DELIGHT
2.35 Ascot (win-50 bull’s-eye bet)
BET 2.85pts win and place GRATEFUL
3.15 Ascot
FORTUNE COOKIE
BET 20pts win CHARYN
BET 4.5pts win (saver) TAMFANA
3.55 Ascot
FORTUNE COOKIE
BET 20pts win ECONOMICS
4.35 Ascot (win-50 bull’s-eye bet)
BET 3pts win and place MEXICALI ROSE
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