With a passing shower on Friday to make it fair for everybody, Ascot's Qatar Racing British Champions Day is good to go as the 2026 Flat season nears its conclusion. In the Fall of the year that gave a lot, we have a renewal of this fixture which stands up to virtually all of its predecessors thanks largely to the lack of the significant rain that often dogs the European autumn.Next year, the Arc will welcome Calandagan (Gleneagles) for the first time, but Ascot had already laid out the red carpet to the Aga Khan Studs kingpin for the feature G1 Qatar Racing Champion Stakes 12 months ago and happily does so again. Luckily for the purists, it has stayed just dry enough for Ombudsman (Night Of Thunder) to come back for another crack at the French gelding who put him in his place back then. He may or may not do so again and that is the beauty of this latest encounter on a day that likes surprises.Aidan O'Brien has had what they call in football terminology “a game of two halves” this year and looks to pull off a stoppage-time winner in his battle with Andrew Balding for the trainers' title. He has the likes of Constitution River (Wootton Bassett) and Gstaad (Starspangledbanner) to fire at the two main events, while the Kingsclere handler has the ultimate ship-steadier Kalpana (Study Of Man) to maintain the pressure on his Irish rival as she bids for her own piece of history.Back to the Champion Stakes, John Gosden is a relieved man that the wet weather has held off for Ombudsman. “He is ready to go,” he declared. “At York he was spinning his wheels on the ground and that's the way it was, his phenomenal turn of foot is his deadly weapon and when that is blunted that compromises his style and his class.”While the ground is okay for Godolphin's luminary, tactics are not guaranteed to suit with the small field surely likely to ignore his pacemaker Devil's Advocate (Too Darn Hot). For once, Ballydoyle are not inclined to lay on a guaranteed war of attrition and so this renewal could be a nuanced one. Undone by the strong pace last year, Ombudsman doesn't want an unsatisfactory tempo either so William Buick's judgement could be key. “Last year it was a race of stamina with the pace they went, but we're another year on so we'll see how this year goes,” he said in his typically unflappable manner.Not that a slow pace will aid Calandagan, who will have to cope without Mickael Barzalona into the bargain. That may be more of an issue than expected given his unique style of racing, but Christophe Soumillon has been here many times and is as able a deputy as it is possible to obtain. Nemone Routh is hoping it won't affect the global heavyweight's prospects. “We spoke a lot to Francis and he put some names down to us and we just felt we have a long history with Christophe Soumillon and while he doesn't know this particular horse very well, he knows our organisation very well,” she said.“He was in tremendous form over Arc weekend, and we just felt of the jockeys we were considering, it made the most sense to choose him. He knows Ascot very well as well. Obviously, Ombudsman likes good, fast ground too but Calandagan on a good surface last year was in front of him and we feel he's really benefitted from the break after the King George.”“We felt he was a bit tired that day, take nothing away from Kalpana, but we felt he came to win his race and just didn't quite finish it out,” she added. “We felt he needed a bit of a break, which he's had and he seems in really good form with himself.”Constitution River is the big three-year-old tackling last year's one-two, with a late change of heart meaning he bypasses the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and sticks at the 10-furlong trip over which he won a light renewal of the Eclipse in July. Since then, his aura has been diminished by defeats at York and Leopardstown and this is no arena to enter with confidence knocked. A horse that tries hard, he has come up short tackling hardened older horses and if the pace isn't true he could end up doing too much too soon as he did on the Knavesmire.“We weren't sure at the time of Leopardstown that he wasn't staying the trip but it's very possible with the health of the horses at that time that he was just getting tired,” Aidan O'Brien said. “We were nearly going to do the mile this time, but the more we thought of it, was it fair? We just decided we'd find out a bit more.”Supplying the real pace to the race should be Victorious Forever's Arc runner-up Bay City Roller (New Bay), but Oisin Murphy is unlikely to want to be a sitting duck for the big two and may just have a surprise up his sleeve. George Scott's year of years is summed up his entries on this card and he is happy to go again so soon after his ParisLongchamp exploits. “He seems to be a horse that thrives with racing,” the trainer said. “He had the summer off and so comes into this a fresh horse and two of his best runs have come after short back-ups.”“If everything goes well at Ascot and he runs well and comes out of it, the plan is very much to head to Kentucky,” he added. “I was watching some racing from there last night and it looked pretty wet. So provided he comes out of Ascot in good shape, he'll be heading to the Breeders' Cup. He's a horse that's never let us down, he's very reliable so it's not out of his reach to certainly compete in both races.”Perhaps Ballydoyle's best chance of the afternoon lies in the QEII, where the aforementioned Gstaad lines up without the looming presence of Bow Echo at a track that really plays to his strengths. There is the persisting sense that his stable's horses have gone collectively “over the top” but everything else points to him being the one to beat. Out of the first two for the first time in the Prix du Moulin, he will relish this direct stamina test.O'Brien, who also saddles last year's Futurity Trophy winner Hawk Mountain (Wootton Bassett) with a visor in a race that is prone to big-priced upsets, believes the first string had excuses last time. “I probably messed up the tactics a little bit the last day in France, where they didn't go overly fast and Longchamp is a much quicker mile than most places,” he said. “We always felt that Ascot would suit him, he won a Coventry Stakes there over six and it's a strong mile–the Old Mile there is probably the fairest, there's no turns or twists, it's straight up.”“Hawk Mountain is in good form, we're going back to a mile for the first time this year so that will be interesting,” he added. “We're not sure whether his last couple of disappointing runs were due to the horses being a little bit under the weather or him not staying and we thought the straight mile in Ascot would suit him well.”Godolphin's Talk Of New York (Wootton Bassett) was behind Gstaad in the St James's Palace Stakes on the round track in June, but could be arriving here the fresher of the pair having swerved other big midsummer tests and enjoyed a confidence boost in the Joel Stakes. “He is taking on a much stronger field compared to his last start, but his run in the St James's Palace Stakes should put him in the mix,” Charlie Appleby said. “He came out of the Joel Stakes well and we made the supplementary entry on the back of him showing us that he was in good shape at home.”Of the older milers, the Queen Anne hero Ten Bob Tony (Night Of Thunder) should have the same set-up he enjoyed at the Royal meeting and has since shown that to be no fluke. Probably flying under the radar again, he holds the fellow sons of Night Of Thunder, More Thunder and Zeus Olympios, on that form and may not be done producing the goods as TBT Racing's flagship performer.“The shape of the race has changed a bit over the last couple of weeks and it is a really interesting race, but he's been in great form all summer and if he can win a Queen Anne he can win a QEII,” Ed Walker said. “The track and trip suit and I pigeon-holed him as a soft-ground horse earlier, but he's proven very versatile. Good ground for him is fantastic.”The G1 Qatar Racing British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes is all about Kalpana, who bids for a third renewal to probably bring to a close a season that has seen her conquer Calandagan and co in a King George. In what could also be the finale of her accomplished career, Juddmonte's big improver finds it impossible to let the side down and with a chance of the trainers' championship on the line looks once again to bounce out of the Arc on her favoured terrain.“Alcohol Free won four Group 1s, including a Sussex Stakes and a Cheveley Park, and was extraordinary but Kalpana is such a delight to have anything to do with and we are very proud of her achievements and particularly fond of her as a horse–she is everybody's favourite,” Balding said.“The thing is there are three-year-olds in there, she won it as a three-year-old and if they are improvers they are pretty tough to beat if they are good enough,” he added. “I'm not taking anything for granted and she is going to have to be at her best to win it. We are following the same route and the only thing we changed from last season was the Yorkshire Oaks instead of the September Stakes. We are guessing slightly, because it is difficult to read with a horse of this nature but we have followed the same programme step for step and we're just hoping we get the same result.”Of those younger fillies, Wells Watson's impressive Irish Oaks heroine Johanna Walsh (Sea The Stars) is back on quicker ground having failed to fire in the rain-hit Yorkshire Oaks where Sparan Nua (Dawn Approach) went so close to upstaging Kalpana. Another of the three-year-olds who intrigues is James Wigan's homebred Lilt (Lope De Vega), who is unexposed and just raw material at present compared to the big favourite but who caught the eye when following Thundering On in the Blandford Stakes last month.William Haggas is not one to over-face his runners in races such as these, so his willingness to pitch Lilt in against the very best should be taken seriously. “Her work has been very good since that race and the ground is going to be nice for her, so it will give her every chance of getting the trip,” he said. “I'm not convinced she wants a mile and a half, but it is worth a go and it is end of term.”There is much greater expectancy surrounding Haggas's leading representative in the G1 Qatar Racing British Champions Sprint Stakes, with Shadwell's Almeraq (Dark Angel) seeking a treble at the highest level over the same course and distance of his Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes success in June. Proving that top-class performances can come on slow ground as well as fast at Haydock last month, he has very little in the way of flaws but will trade very short at a meeting that likes to rip up the formbook.Every year, horses of this ilk come here with the weight of expectation behind them and fall foul to big outsiders, but Almeraq has a lightly-raced profile and his only flop came in the July Cup over a fast track on fast ground. “He is really good. If you can put a line through his run in the July Cup, where he was drawn low and saw way too much daylight and I'm not sure he enjoyed the track much, then I think his credentials are pretty solid whatever the ground,” his trainer said.“If he hadn't run in the July Cup, you would be hailing him as one of the greats and I think he is a pretty good horse.”Taking on Almeraq are the likes of the course-and-distance winner Coppull (Bated Breath), the 2024 winner Kind Of Blue (Blue Point) and the Prix Maurice de Gheest hero Samangan (Blue Point), as well as some longshots with smart form in a race that has produced winners at double-figure odds in seven of the last nine renewals. They include triumphs at 200-1, 40-1, 33-1 and 28-1, so nothing is a given until proven otherwise.Wathnan Racing are represented by Kind Of Blue, the Sprint Cup runner-up Paborus (Recoletos) and the Haggas second-string Division (Kingman), with the former the main contender. Getting a well-overdue win at Kempton last time, the James Fanshawe-trained five-year-old could be dangerous back on a happy hunting ground.“Obviously if Almeraq runs to his Haydock form he's going to be very tough to beat, but we're hoping we have the slightly fresher horse and he goes there with a bit more confidence than he had before Haydock,” Tom Fanshawe said. “I think we're quite realistic and know that Almeraq is a stand-out sprinter at the moment, we need him to run below-form probably to win the race but this time of year, at Ascot, anything can happen.”Starting off the Group 1 action, the Qatar Racing British Champions Long Distance Cup has drawn the St Leger hero Highwayman (Persian King) and the dual Prix du Cadran hero Caballo De Mar (Phoenix Of Spain) in a fascinating clash of the generations. George Scott is hoping the latter can hold his form after a struggle with Scandinavia a fortnight ago. “He's come out of Paris very well,” he said. “He's given us all the right signs and we've been delighted with him.”“The key with him is keeping him fresh and happy. We've changed the way we ride him and train him a little bit and he's a horse that seems to be evolving all the time,” he added. “He's run well at the track before and he's there to enjoy and there to race.”Also in the mix is Gregory (Golden Horn), another Wathnan runner who has come back from an absence in the form of his life and was a wide-margin winner of the Rose Bowl Stakes last time. John Gosden masterminded wins here with Trawlerman and Stradivarius in recent years and could have another staying star on his hands, while Aidan O'Brien knows what it takes to win these races and supplies Queenstown (Galileo) and the Leger third Amelia Earhart (Camelot).The latter is up in trip again and could enjoy the prolonged experience. “Amelia ran a very good race in France and looks like a filly that has a good chance of getting two miles, so that will be interesting,” he said.Ascot's clerk of the course Chris Stickels has had nature take care of his worries in the build-up and said, “We've had around 3.5mm rain this morning, which has taken the ground back to 'good' all over. The rain has cleared through and the forecast for the rest of the day is to be sunny and dry and then tomorrow is slightly cooler but also dry. I expect conditions to be broadly where they are now by the time racing gets underway. The track is in great condition and we are all set for a fantastic day.”The post Stars Align For Champions Day appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.