British Champions Day at Ascot: Champion Stakes, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and more – live

Key events50m agoPreambleThe runners that could decide the trainers’ titleAidan O’Brien has eight runners on today’s card, starting with Confucius in the opener and followed up by:Queenstown (1.30), Amelia Earhart (1.30), Minnie Hauk (2.40), Sugar Island (2.40), Gstaad (3.20), Hawk Mountain (3.20) and finally Constitution River in the Champion Stakes at 4.00.Andrew Balding has five:Mount Atlas (1.30), Marvelman (2.05), See The Fire (2.40), Kalpana (2.40) and Mister Winston (4.35).12.55 Ascot, latest bettingHere are the latest prices on the opening juvenile event at Ascot, courtesy of Oddschecker.Arapaho Gold- 5/2Night in Vegas- 7/2Satellite of Love- 4/1Inner City Blues- 13/2Speed of Sound- 14/1Confucius- 22/1Oakford- 25/1BAR- 25/112.55 British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes, 6fThey will be in the parade ring imminently ahead of the most recent addition to the Champions Day schedule is still too young to have earned Pattern-race status, but last year’s winner, Mission Central, followed up in the Group One King Charles III Stakes at the Royal meeting here in the summer so it is off to a very strong start.The favourite for the latest renewal is Arapaho Gold, who was the best horse at the weights when third in the Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury last time.Mill ReefHe is top-rated by Timeform too, but the current form of his trainer, Michael Dods, has to be a concern as he has not saddled a single winner from 30 runners over the past two weeks.Night In Vegas has been making hay in a series of races linked to yearling sales and auction prices, amassing nearly £600k in the process, and has a very decent chance of adding another £128k here, and had Satellite Of Love back in the second when the pair were the 1-2 in the sales race at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting. On a strict reading of the form, though, Satellite Of Love should be ahead of Night In Vegas today – he’s 7lb better off for a half-length beating.Aidan O’Brien’s only runner, Confucius, finished last on his most recent outing and is unfancied in the betting, but Inner City Blues, in the first colours of the Godolphin operation, is definitely worth considering – he’s taking a significant drop in class after finishing fifth in the Group One Middle Park Stakes last time.Middle Park StakesBut I’m going to take an each-way punt on the apparent Godolphin second-string, Victory Gold. Runners from Saeed bin Suroor’s stable tend to go under the radar these days, but he has maintained an impressive strike-rate despite playing second-fiddle to Charlie Appleby for much of the last decade. And his runners are definitely worth a closer look when he books Oisin Murphy to ride – they have teamed up to record a 30pc strike-rate and a significant level-stakes profit over the last six seasons.PreambleWelcome to Ascot on Champions Day 2026, ahead of a seven-race card that stands at least a fair degree of comparison with the end-of-season jamborees in Paris two weeks ago, and in Keeneland later this month.For that, we owe thanks to the long, dry summer that has extended into mid-October. That means in turn that this year’s card will be one of the few without the word “soft” somewhere in the going description (although it is also, as the Racing Post’s columnist Richard Forristal pointed out earlier this week, “a pity that it required the world to burn for the event to work”).But here we are, with seven races including five Group Ones and an unusually live race for the Flat trainers’ championship between Andrew Balding and Aidan O’Brien which could effectively be decided today.Balding’s main hope is Kalpana, the favourite, in the Fillies & Mares Stakes at 2.40, while O’Brien has several decent chances scattered through the card, the most obvious being Gstaad in the £1.1m Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at 3.20 and Constitution River in the feature event, the £1.3m Champion Stakes, at 4.00.Shock winners were the order of the day last year, when the Sprint was won by a 200-1 shot and the QEII by a 100-1 chance, so the punters may well approach the proceedings with a degree of trepidation.My picks for the seven races are here – underneath an interview with the immensely impressive new 20-year-old champion jockey, Billy Loughnane – and we are underway at 12.55 with the Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes.