Champion Stakes Trends

The biggest prize money on offer Saturday is in the shape of the Qipco Champion Stakes (British Champions Middle Distance) (Group 1) which has prize money of £1.3 million, a race only surpassed in value by the Derby.

The race over 1m2f has seen some superstars win, these include Cirrus Des Aigles, Frankel and Faarh in recent years. John Gosden has another odds-on favourite in this in the shape of Cracksman and he in fact won this race last year, but what trends are prevalent in this black-type race?

The last six years has seen races evenly split between horses aged between three to five-year-olds and that will almost certainly be the case again on Saturday.

It comes as no surprise that horses entering a race like this come in with fine form, all of the last sixteen winners had won at least four times previously to competing in this whilst all bar six of the last 16 winners won last time out.

French based trainers have had a fair amount of joy in recent years, however they have no entrant this year and it is a race full of runners from Britain and Irelands top trainers. Aiden O’Brien saddles five of the fourteen runner field but has never actually managed to win the race.

25% of the last 16 races have seen the favourite oblige however on six occasions in the last sixteen years the favourite has actually finished unplaced.

Fourteen of the sixteen runners had won over the distance before and the five horses that head the betting Saturday have all done this. However it is only Cracksman that has won over the distance at Ascot.

The fact is that Cracksman was slightly disappointing last time out and it may be worth siding with ROARING LION. A horse in fine form that fits the bill in many ways. This wouldn’t come as a huge disappointment to Gosden, he also saddles the selection and could be celebrating an impressive Group race treble by four o’clock on Saturday afternoon.