Horse racing betting tips today: Ascot Champion Stakes latest odds and runners

Ascot is the place to be as far as this weekend’s horse racing is concerned with the Champion Stakes taking centre stage on Saturday.

Courtesy of GG, Joe Napier has provided his best bets across the day, exclusively for Metro.

1.30 Ascot – Qipco British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes

This new race for Champions Day has attracted a fairly strong line-up of quality juveniles, but while Words Of Truth is set to go off a short-priced favourite, he could be vulnerable to the depth of this field. Preference instead is for SIREN SUIT, who has one very notable piece of form worth following.

The Cheveley Park-owned son of Churchill was only sixth on debut at Newbury, but he was subsequently third at 14/1 over 5f at Ascot back in April.

He was forced to wait for racing room that day, but was beaten under a length by Godolphin’s Wise Approach, who recently claimed the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, while runner-up Super Soldier and sixth-placed Dickensian have both since placed on multiple occasions at Group level, with fourth-placed Tadej landing a Group 3.

Siren Suit missed 161 days in the interim though, only returning to win a Kempton maiden on the all-weather ten days ago. Those were easy pickings for him, but will likely have blown away some fitness cobwebs and if back in the form he showed in April, looks a cracking each-way play with double-figure odds unlikely to last.

2.05 Ascot – Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes (Group 1)

There are not many 20-runner Group 1s run in Great Britain and Ireland, making this sprint a devilish puzzle. These contests can often prove to be a merry-go-round, though that could prove to be a blessing for KIND OF BLUE, who benefitted to win his first top level race in this a year ago and can duly double down.

James Fanshawe’s charge ended a consistent run of placing in Group races last season with victory in this race on soft ground. However, he is just as capable on quicker ground, as when second in the last two editions of the Sprint Cup at Haydock, both of which were run on good going.

The selection was slow to regain his form as a four-year-old, but has certainly done so the last twice, while he demonstrably enjoys racing at Ascot given his success in the race 12 months ago. His fellow Wathnan-owned rival Lazzat may take a fair amount of the market interest, leaving us with some value on the defending champ.

2.45 Ascot – Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (Group 1)

Since 2017, every winner bar one of this Group 1 has been a three-year-old, Poptronic causing a shock from the front in 2023. As a result, the pair of four-year-olds who dominate the betting could be vulnerable despite their form edge, and while none of the big guns of the Classic generation, one of their understudies could come to the fore in WEMIGHTAKEDLONGWAY.

Joseph O’Brien’s filly was a comfortable winner of an Oaks trial at Navan earlier this year before contesting four straight Group 1s. She was fourth in the Oaks itself and the Pretty Polly Stakes over 1m2f before chasing dual Oaks heroine Minnie Hauk all the way in the Irish version at the Curragh in July.

That runner-up effort was not the closest she has come to breaking through at the top level though, as she was beaten just half-a-length into fourth in the Prix de l’Opera over Arc weekend at Longchamp. Plenty of her rivals are also making a quick turnaround since that raceday and as a three-year-old with low mileage on her second start from a mid-season break, she could have the greater capacity to maintain her form, with these conditions potentially her optimum.

4.05 Ascot – Qipco Champion Stakes (Group 1)

This has the potential to be the best flat race of the season, with it telling that multiple Group 1 heroes Delacroix and Calandagan are extremely unlikely to be the favourite where they would be odds-on in an ordinary year. However, that is because they are up against this season’s star 1m2f performer in OMBUDSMAN, who can win over course and distance for the second time this season.

The aforementioned pair are very talented horses, but Ombudsman has the wow factor which separates him from the rest. He would have needed his reappearance behind Almaqam at Sandown, as was demonstrated when he was allowed to go off 7/1 before bolting up in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. He showed a stellar turn of foot when required to ultimately pull clear of a useful field.

Delacroix then had his measure in the Eclipse, but that was a trappy race tactically, while the selection levelled the score at York in the Juddmonte International when having the aid of a pacemaker. That is the case again in this race, and back over the track and trip at which he produced his current peak, he should take some stopping.

Ascot Saturday race card in full

12:55 – Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup
13:30 – Qipco British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes
14:05 – Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes
14:45 – Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes
15:25 – Queen Elizabeth II Stakes16:05 – Qipco Champion Stakes
16:40 – Balmoral Handicap

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