Ascot preview: Aidan O'Brien QIPCO British Champions Day runners

By Sporting Life

12:03 · FRI October 18, 2024

Aidan O'Brien with a horse-by-horse guide to his team for QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday.

Aidan O’Brien will have his biggest QIPCO British Champions Day team since 2020 when his outstanding stayer Kyprios leads six Group One winners among a squad of eight for the UK’s richest raceday on Saturday.

Here is his guide to his full team

QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS LONG DISTANCE CUP

Previous winners: 2011 Fame and Glory, 2017 Order Of St George, 2019 Kew Gardens

“Kyprios has come back from Longchamp well and we are very happy with him. He obviously hasn’t done much since then, but he seems to be in good form.

“He’s obviously an unbelievable horse to do what he’s done every run this year, and last year too really, as he’d only just come back from injury. I don’t think we could even have dreamed he'd do as well as he has after his injury last year. What’s he’s done is just incredible.

“He had a couple of runs in his build up for the Gold Cup, and to go on from there to Goodwood, the Irish St Leger and then to France is just incredible. It’s unbelievable to have him around still to compete in races like this at this time of the year, and although this is back to a Group 2 we had it pencilled in for him after France if he came out of the race well.

“Hopefully he’ll be back again next year too. We’ll get him through the winter and then back for a couple of runs again before the Gold Cup again. He’s incredible.”

“The Euphrates ran very well in the Irish St Leger and then went back to the Curragh and won the Irish Cesarewitch. That was a big handicap prize and we think he’s a horse who is very much on the upgrade.”

Kyprios powers to an eighth Group One win

QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS FILLIES AND MARES STAKES

Previous winners: 2017 Hydrangea, 2018 Magical

“Content likes the mile and a half and she has form on soft ground. France was a bit of a non event, as it was back to a mile and a quarter and they went very slow. She always wears earplugs, but in France you aren’t allowed to run in earplugs unless you wear a hood, so she obviously had to wear both, which might have been too much for her. We put her run there down to a combination of all those things, and we have to put a line through it.

“Grateful is a classy filly with an unbelievable pedigree (by Galileo out of Tepin, who won the Breeders’ Cup Mile and the Queen Anne Stakes). Christophe (Soumillon) gave her a brilliant ride when she won the Prix de Royallieu, and he rides again. That was over a mile and six, but this race will ride like more than a mile and a half as it will be so testing, so hopefully she’ll run well again.

“Wingspan is on the upgrade big time. Ryan felt she was a little bit unlucky a few times, but she’s definitely improving and her mum Hydrangea won this race, so she got the mile and a half. We think she’ll handle the ease in the ground, and her work is stepping up every week.”

Grateful completes an Aidan O'Brien four-timer

QUEEN ELIZABETH II STAKES (SPONSORED BY QIPCO)

Previous winners: 2012 Excelebration, 2016 Minding

“Henry Longfellow hasn’t had things go right for him yet this year. He just hasn’t had the rub of the green, and variables that we can’t control have gone against him so far, but he’s still run some very good races. Maybe that’s the way it's going to be for him, but we don’t think we’ve seen the best of him.

“We are very happy with his work and he has form with ease in the ground. If he was back to his St James’s Palace form he’d be thereabouts.”

QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS STAKES

Previous winner: 2019 Magical

“Los Angeles ran a fantastic race in the Arc. Ideally, we’d have preferred a lead, but nobody else was going to go on. He was just a little bit of a baby out in front, waiting for company the whole time, but he still ran a great race.

“He’s had a busy season but he’s a big, strong colt who has been coming out of his races well all year. Hopefully we’ll have him back next year, but that’s something for the lads to decide.

“Continuous ran in the Arc too but it was a bit of a non-event as he ran into the horse that was injured coming down the hill. Christophe said we could put a line through it, and he rides again. He’s had an easy season and his action suggests he’ll handle the ground, even though he handles fast ground as well.”

Horse Racing Podcast: Champions Day thoughts and Cesarewitch debate

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