Calandagan versus Ombudsman is lure enough, but when you’ve also got the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe second Bay City Roller, Almaqam, Gstaad and Hotazhell in the mix, Saturday’s G1 Champion Stakes at Ascot is well worth watching.
Champions earn their status by competing against the best. Calandagan and Ombudsman are two brilliant racehorses and to see them clash is the kind of thing the sport should be all about. But take one of those two out and the lure is not as magnetic.
If the Champion Stakes did not allow geldings, there would be no Calandagan, it would be Ombudsman – the highest-rated horse in Europe on official ratings – versus a field of talented athletes, but not versus a champion. We would not be seeing two stars clash.
Think back to 2012 and the great Frankel’s final race in this very contest. He had beaten the best in Europe at a mile and in his penultimate race he sensationally annihilated the best in Britain and Ireland at a mile and a quarter, crushing them by seven lengths at York.
The Champion Stakes brought a new test for the champion: proper soft autumn Ascot ground and the French star Cirrus Des Aigles, a wet ground specialist and the previous year’s Champion Stakes winner who in landing that prize had defeated the Australian champion So You Think. Cirrus Des Aigles was being touted as the best gelding to race in Europe since Hornet’s Beauty 100 years earlier.
Frankel beat the gelding in a brilliant display that sealed his extraordinary greatness and did nothing to diminish his stud value. The Champion Stakes, like most Group 1 races around the world – European classic races for three-year-olds are rightly protected – is open to geldings, and it has not been a problem, nor has it affected the breed.
It was interesting then to see the uproar when France-Galop passed a motion recently to allow geldings to race in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The major breeders have not hidden their dismay, so much so that Henri Bozo, manager of the prominent breeding operation Écurie des Monceaux, launched an online petition ‘Protect the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe’.
Racing and breeding leviathans Coolmore shared the petition via its social media accounts: the post on X had 484,000 ‘views’ in five days, 997 likes, 558 shares, and 102 comments. The petition had only 1,161 signatures.
The majority of comments were unsympathetic to Coolmore and their fellow big breeders. That particular cross-section of the people, the fans, made it pretty clear they want to see the best race the best and that means allowing geldings in the best races, not protectionism by wealthy breeders.
One argument Bozo’s petition leans into is that breeders might choose not to race their three-year-old colts against older horses in the Arc more especially if those older horses have been gelded: the argument being that geldings have a physical advantage. It is true that geldings, by virtue of being castrated, are generally easier to train, they carry less body mass than testosterone-packed colts. But that doesn’t mean a gelding is therefore a better athlete.
And here’s the thing: the breeders can choose to race just as they can choose not to. If they really have the sport’s interests at heart, if they really want to prove a colt is genuinely a champion, they will choose to race against geldings in the Arc like they would the King George or the Champion Stakes. If the breeders choose not to race against geldings, well then they’re the ones choosing to reduce the quality of the Arc.
In fact, the reality is that big breeders have been reducing the quality of the world’s major races for decades and decades by retiring so many of their best colts at age three rather than racing on at four. And let’s be real, many commercial breeders are a long-term threat to 2400m races like the Arc and the Derby at Epsom by sacrificing the breed’s stamina for speed.
The sport was blessed to have Frankel race at four, and Baaeed and Daryz in recent years. But the sport missed out when Sea The Stars, Sinndar, Generous, Galileo, Giant’s Causeway, City Of Troy, Ace Impact, Kingman, Shamardal, Dalakhani, and so many more were retired at the end of their three-year-old season.
Every sport needs elite competition, it needs rivalries and it needs some longevity from its stars: racing needs engaged fans who are invested in the horses and their stories. France-Galop, which back in May outlined the perilous state of racing in France, knows this.
Geldings race longer, they build those connections with fans, just look at the Hong Kong champions Ka Ying Rising, Romantic Warrior, Golden Sixty; they raced for multiple seasons and their fanbases were strong. It’s similar to Japan’s stars, racing at four, sometimes five, before disappearing to stud.
That’s not to say we need more geldings. It’s highly doubtful anyway that the change to the Arc will result in a steep rise in the number of colts being gelded or that geldings will dominate the race. But if a gelding is among the best they deserve to be in there competing to prove it.
It won’t damage the sport, it will help it: it will ensure the fans get what they want to see, and with a dwindling fanbase, that’s vital.
This Week In Horse Racing History
The Kenilworth Park Gold Cup in Windsor, Ontario on October 12, 1920 was a match race between the 1919 Triple Crown winner Sir Barton against the now legendary Man O’ War in the latter’s final race before retirement. It was Man O’War who won and he did it easily by seven lengths for a career record of 20 wins and one second from 21 starts. It was said that the hard surface did not suit Sir Barton’s fragile feet.
One of the sport’s most famous shock defeats occurred on October 17, 1970 when the brilliant Triple Crown winner Nijinsky was beaten at odds of 4/11 in the Champion Stakes. The Vincent O’Brien-trained three-year-old had lost his unbeaten tag two weeks prior when a narrow second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. This time he was beaten by the five-year-old Lorenzaccio, a 100/7 chance.
Also at Newmarket, but 40 years later on October 16, 2010, the incredible Frankel took another step on his way to greatness with a brilliant win in the G1 Dewhurst Stakes. The Henry Cecil-trained colt easily saw off the subsequent G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Roderic O’Connor, with the following year’s champion sprinter Dream Ahead well back in fifth.
Global Blackbook
Japan’s quest for a G1 Kentucky Derby win will take shape early next year, but the potential candidates for Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May will emerge through the autumn and Winter Breeze could take high rank in the pecking order if his latest win at Tokyo on Monday is anything to go by.
The two-year-old started out on the turf with two second-place finishes back in June and July but has flourished since switching to the JRA’s deep, sharp dirt. He spreadeagled his rivals when winning his maiden at Nakayama – track record time for a juvenile – in late September and was impressive again this week in winning the Platanus Sho at Tokyo by five lengths. Monday’s Jpn1 Mile Championship Nambu Hai winner Meisho Hachiro ran 5th in the Platanus Sho in 2024.
Winter Breeze’s latest success was achieved under champion jockey Christophe Lemaire, who positioned the colt a close second outside the leader before allowing him to stride to the lead under his own steam down the home straight. The Hot Rod Charlie colt – a half-brother to last year’s G2 UAE Derby winner Admire Daytona – drew away without pressure.
Winter Breeze’s en vogue trainer Hiroyasu Tanaka has an international outlook and said after the race that the next target would likely be the NAR’s Jpn1 Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun on December 16 – if he has done enough to get into the field – and will then look at offshore targets for next season. Forever Young won the Kawasaki race three years ago, and it has also been won by Agnes World, Agnes Digital, Furioso, La Vent Se Leve and Derma Sotogake.
What’s Coming Up?
The Everest Day
Randwick, Australia, October 17
Hong Kong’s great champion Ka Ying Rising will attempt to win the world’s richest turf race for the second time in as many years and if he does he will extend his winning streak to 22. David Hayes’ charge faces some of Australia’s best, headed by Godolphin’s classy mare Tempted, runner-up last year but unbeaten in five races since. With rain around, meaning the possibility of a wet track, it could prove to be Ka Ying Rising’s toughest test. The 12-horse line-up also features Joliestar, Jimmysstar, Headwall, Angel Capital, Ninja and Giga Kick.
Caulfield Cup Day
Caulfield, Australia, October 17
The G1 Caulfield Cup is Australia’s premier mile and a half handicap and last year’s winner Half Yours went on to win the G1 Melbourne Cup. He must shoulder 57.5kg this year but is back to try to become the first dual winner since Ming Dynasty in 1980 and the first to win year-to-year since Rising Fast in 1954 and 1955. High class former Irish runner Zahrann is a leading contender, as are the G1 Turnbull Stakes winner Cosmic Crusader, and the British raider Enfjaar.
British Champions Day
Ascot, England, October 17
Calandagan and Ombudsman will clash in the Champion Stakes, but the day features four other Group 1 races, the Long Distance Cup, Champions Sprint Stakes, Fillies and Mares Stakes, and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. The QEII has a storied history, a race that can decide Europe’s champion miler, although it was a better measure all-round before it was shifted to the later date when the going is generally softer at Ascot. This year’s QEII could feature the in-form Talk Of New York, the French Derby winner Constitution River, French Guineas winner Rayif, and the talented Zavateri. ∎
