British Champions Day is a thoroughbred horse race meeting held at Ascot Racecourse in October each year since 2011, which acts as the end of season highlight fixture of British flat racing. It is the culmination of the British Champions Series and features the finals of the five divisions of the series, together with a valuable one-mile handicap race. It’s the richest raceday in the British calendar and the chance to see the World’s finest horses and jockeys battle it out for their slice of history.
As the culmination of the QIPCO (Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company) British Champions Series, this raceday features the end-of-season championship races for Ten-furlong horses (The Champion Stakes), Milers (The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes), Sprinters (six furlongs), Long distance horses (two miles) and Fillies and Mares (one mile and four furlongs).
It was created by drawing together a number of historic races which had been features of Ascot and Newmarket’s end of season meetings for many years. These were the Diadem Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes from Ascot, and the Champion Stakes, Jockey Club Cup and Pride Stakes from Newmarket. In the new fixture, these became the finals of each of the divisions of the British Champions Series.
The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Champion Stakes retained their names and became the finals of the Mile and Middle Distance divisions, respectively. The Diadem Stakes became the British Champions Sprint, the Jockey Club Cup became the British Champions Long Distance Cup, and the Pride Stakes became the British Champions Fillies’ and Mares’ Stakes.
The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes is open to horses aged three years or older; it is run over a distance of 1 mile (1,609 meters). The Champion Stakes is open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older; it is run over a distance of 1 mile and 2 furlongs (2,012 meters).
For exciting non-racing horse activities, the Mounted Branch of the Metropolitan Police are set to make a fiery return to Olympia, The London International Horse Show (12-18 December, 2017).
Over in the United States, you may want to check out the article about racing Quarter Horse Iowa-bred stallion The Fiscal Cliff who romped to a three-quarter-length victory in the $330,000 Bank of America Challenge Championship (G1) for Iowa City, Iowa-based owner and breeder Tom Lepic.