Almanzor won the £1,300,000 QIPCO British Champion Stakes at Ascot, the most valuable race on QIPCO British Champions Day (Saturday 15 October).
The colt went off favourite in the Group 1 race, under jockey Christophe Soumillon, to finish two lengths ahead of the recent Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, Found.
“He’s a super horse,” said Almanzor’s trainer, Jean-Claude Rouget. “I would rank him very highly against all the horses I have ever trained. It’s fantastic to win this race and fantastic to win a Group 1 race here.”
Trainer Aidan O’Brien had to settle for second place in the Champions Stakes with his star mare Found, but her stablemate Minding did win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes to give her an impressive seventh Group One win.
Minding’s victory gave jockey Ryan Moore his first British Champions Day win.
“It’s some performance – she’s had a hard year and Aidan has freshened her up and brought her back to a mile. It’s some achievement to see off the colts and she has done it the hard way. She was just too good and too strong for them,” he said of the three-year-old Galileo filly.
In the QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, last year’s runner-up Journey went one better to take the win under jockey Frankie Dettori.
“She deserved a Group 1, she has been running so well. I can’t believe the turn of foot that she showed today and I am delighted for her,” said Dettori. “She picked up like she had roller skates! It was instantaneous. She’s not straightforward, but she keeps on winning so I like her!”
The Tin Man, a four-year-old gelding trained by James Fanshawe, won the QIPCO British Champions Sprint Stakes.
He was ridden by Tom Queally, who was enjoying his first Group One win since Frankel’s final race, the QIPCO British Champion Stakes in 2012.
“The post-Frankel years have been difficult. But it’s like poker – if you keep going to the table, you’ve got a chance of getting a hand,” said Queally. “I was dealt the best hand of all time a few years ago, but I know I am capable of playing a hand if I get it. I’ve had to wait a while, but I’m getting a kick out of it.”
The day’s action began with the Group Two QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup, won by the David Simcock-trained Sheikhzayedroad, ridden by Martin Harley.
Meanwhile, the final race of the day – the Balmoral Handicap – went to Yuften, trained by Roger Charlton and ridden by Andrea Atzeni.
Rod Street, Chief Executive of Racing Enterprises Limited, Great British Racing and British Champions Series Limited, hailed this year’s QIPCO British Champions Day as ‘the best day’s racing ever to have been put on in Great Britain’.
“Each of the races has produced some sensational performances with Almanzor reigning supreme in the QIPCO British Champion Stakes and Minding showing just how versatile she is with a smooth success in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes,” he said.