Champions Day is likely to take place on heavy going at Ascot this Saturday after substantial rainfall in the south of England on Sunday night. The prospect of deep ground appears to have robbed the extremely valuable card of another big name in The Grey Gatsby, although there were seven supplementary entries made on Monday, taking the prize money on offer past £4m for the first time.
“The going is now heavy, soft in places,” said Ascot’s clerk of the course, Chris Stickels, on Monday. “We had 25mm of rain last night and we’ve had another 3mm during the day. I’m afraid the forecast is showery. We could get showers on most days from now to the weekend.”
Monday’s Salisbury meeting was rendered unraceable by a similar quantity of rain but Stickels said Ascot was certainly raceable and, on the basis of the current forecast, he did not feel there was a real possibility of Champions Day being lost or postponed. However, he could see little prospect of the course drying out.
Stickels said it was “quite possible” for the course to dry out to soft if there were consecutive dry days. “But, given that we’re forecast to get showers on most days, the likelihood is that the going will be as it is now.”
He confirmed that the course has been examining the possibility of commissioning a large number of raised covers that could be placed all around the course to keep rain off the racing surface, with the specific aim of protecting the course before Champions Days in the future. “We’re hoping to have trials at some point but there is nothing more concrete than that. There are significant risks posed by things like wind, leaks and seepage. We need to know how we would manage the logistics of putting the covers on to the course and taking them off before racing.”
There are significant costs associated with the building of mobile units that would have to cover a circuit of almost two miles round as well as the straight mile. Discussions as to who would bear these costs have not, apparently, taken place but contributions could be sought from British racing’s central funds and from Qipco, the Qatari sponsors of Champions Day.
This year’s fixture lost yet another big name when Kevin Ryan, trainer of The Grey Gatsby, said his horse would not line up for the Champion Stakes because the ground was too soft. The horse was left in the race at the five-day entry stage after Ryan’s initial statement but the trainer later confirmed there was no question of waiting to see if the ground would dry out and that The Grey Gatsby was a definite non-runner. Clive Brittain said his Rizeena would miss the QEII for the same reason.
Those news items were part of an attritional day for the sport, with the retirements being announced of Taghrooda and Mukhadram, Group One winners who will now go to stud, as well as the jockey Kirsty Milczarek, forced out of the game by a longstanding neck injury. Another jockey, Charlie Bennett, was taken to hospital after a fall at Windsor while in America the news broke that an ankle injury will keep Wise Dan out of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, which he has won for the past two years.
On the more positive side the seven supplementary entries for Champions Day included the Group One winner G Force in the Sprint. Pether’s Moon, whose best success in Britain has been at Group Three level, is sixth in the betting for the Champion Stakes after being added to the field, which might be thought indicative of a shortage of quality in that race.
