Found and Almanzor head QIPCO British Champions Day line-up at Ascot

The pair are set to go head-to-head in the Champion Stakes which is one of six races on the country’s richest race day.

The QIPCO British Champions Day is now firmly established as the finale to the British Flat racing season with many of the best horses and jockeys from across the globe once again heading to Ascot to compete for prize money of £4.2 million.

There are four Group One races, a Group Two contest and a handicap to look forward to at the Berkshire course with the dual between Found and Almanzor in the Champions Stakes promising to be something special.

Almanzor is the highest-rated horse in Europe, and beat Found in the Irish Champion Stakes last month before O’Brien’s filly went on to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly at the start of the month.

O’Brien will also saddle US Army Ranger in the big race Last year’s winner Fascinating Rock and the 2015 Irish Derby victor Jack Hobbs are among other challengers.

The Long Distance Cup gets matters underway with Order Of St George likely to go off favourite for O’Brien, but will face resistance from the 2015 St Leger winner Simple Verse.

The sprinters take centre stage in the £600,000 Champion Sprint Stakes, although favourite Limato will miss the encounter and instead head for next month’s Breeders’ Cup in the USA. In Limato’s absence, Twilight Son, Mecca’s Angel and Quiet Reflection, will head another strong field.

Zhukova will be seeking to record a fifth straight win when running in the Fillies and Mares Stakes. Last year’s runner-up Journey will be bidding to go one better than 12 momth ago, while Irish Oaks winner Seventh Heaven represents Aidan O’Brien, along with Pretty Perfect and Even Song.

Six-time Group One winner Minding steps back in distance to a mile to run in The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. The 1000 Guineas and Oaks winner showed in the Irish Champion Stakes she can mix it with the boys by coming in third behind Almanzor and Found. With Ryan Moore in the saddle, Minding goes into the contest as one of the favourites against stiff opposition particularly from Galileo Gold, Awtaad and Ribchester.

After the Champion Stakes, the Balmoral Handicap brings the curtain down on the Flat Season where a maximum field of 20 has been declared and leading contenders include Yuften, Morando and Firmament.

The QIPCO British Champions Series comprises five categories – Sprint, Mile, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Fillies and Mares. Each division features the seven highest-rated races in each category in Great Britain which culminate in a same-day finale on QIPCO British Champions Day.

With a collective prize fund of over £17 million, the Series is staged across ten of the UK’s leading racecourses: Ascot, Doncaster, Epsom, Goodwood, Newmarket’s Rowley Mile and July Courses, Haydock Park, Newbury, Sandown Park and York.

The Series encompasses British Flat racing’s key festivals including The QIPCO Guineas Festival, The Investec Derby Festival, The Moet andChandon July Festival, Royal Ascot, The Qatar Goodwood Festival, York’s Ebor Festival, and The Ladbrokes St Leger Festival.