Dee Ex Bee, the runner-up behind Stradivarius in three of the summer’s top staying events, seems likely to be the first big name to be ruled out of Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday following the track’s decision to switch three races on the £4.5m card to its hurdles course after persistent rain left the main Flat course waterlogged.
Champions Day is the richest one‑day meeting of the Flat season in Britain with nearly £4.5m on offer on a six-race card that includes four Group One contests. However its scheduling in mid-October has resulted in four of the eight renewals since its founding in 2011 being staged on soft ground, with two more on good-to-soft and only two on a surface quicker than good.
Dee Ex Bee has winning form on heavy ground as a juvenile but is now almost certain to sidestep the Group Two Long Distance Cup, for which he was the 7-1 third-favourite on Wednesday morning. “He’s highly unlikely to run,” Mark Johnston, Dee Ex Bee’s trainer, said. “In fact, I can virtually say he won’t run. I think he would probably handle the ground as well as any of them, but we’re not going to take the risk. We want to end on a reasonably high note for the season, not going round on a jumps course.
“It [the switch in tracks] is hardly ideal, and we wouldn’t want a slog on the last day of the season. We’ve had a great year. It’s been frustrating that he hasn’t won a Group One but this isn’t a Group One anyway. To run in a Group Two in what could be borderline raceable conditions is not what we should be doing with the horse.”
In addition to the Long Distance Cup, the Qipco Champion Stakes and the Champion Fillies & Mares Stakes will switch to the inner track, while the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Champions Sprint will remain on Ascot’s straight course, where the going is currently heavy.
There was only 3mm of rain at Ascot on Wednesday but showers are forecast and Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course, said that there had been little choice but to turn to their contingency plan for Saturday’s meeting.
“There were small patches of false waterlogged ground around Swinley Bottom,” Stickels said, “and given the forecast, we wanted to make it clear for everybody. We couldn’t be confident that it would be fit for racing.
“The [inner] course was being prepared for hurdle racing in two weeks’ time but we always have this contingency in the back of our minds. If it was jumping, it would be fast jumping ground and there are parts where it’s nearly good in the straight.”
Thursday’s best bets
The final meeting of the year at Brighton is a chance for course specialists to notch up one last win before this fairly unique track shuts its doors until April and there are plenty on the seven-race card including nearly two dozen in the five handicaps alone. The best bet, though, could well be a runner making his debut on the Sussex Downs, as Bardo Contiguo (2.30) will take plenty of stopping.
Roger Varian’s gelding had some trouble in running on his handicap debut at Ayr in September but still found enough to run down Ascot Week in the shadow of the post and win by a head. He is up just 3lb in the ratings as a result of the narrow margin, proven already on easy ground and open to plenty of improvement with just four runs in the book. Even at 6-4, he looks a fair price against much more exposed opponents.
Ramatuelle (3.35) had shown little worthwhile form before being sent to Brighton for her ninth start in early September, and she followed up a third place finish off just 46 with the first win of her career when she returned to the south coast a week later. That was a much improved showing to win a seller off 47 and persuaded Laura Mongan to pay £5,500 to buy her out of Sir Mark Prescott’s stable. Ramatuelle is up another 8lb in the weights, but having found a track that suits her, she could be worth backing to continue her streak.
Hassaad (4.40) should go well, while Arthur’s Gift (1.45) and Tegerek (2.20) have obvious chances at Carlisle. At a bigger price, meanwhile, Atletico (7.00) could be worth an interest at around 12-1 to bounce back from a below-par performance on heavy ground when he turns out at Chelmsford City.
Carlisle 12.15 Esprit Du Large 12.45 Methodtothemadness 1.15 Bourbon Borderline 1.45 Arthur’s Gift 2.20 Tegerek 2.55 Higgs 3.25 Never Up 4.00 Legends Ryde
Brighton 1.25 Bahamian Sunrise 1.55 Silver Samurai 2.30 Bardo Contiguo (nap) 3.05 Spantik 3.35 Ramatuelle (nb) 4.10 Field Of Vision 4.40 Hassaad
Wincanton 1.40 Nebuchadnezzar 2.10 Ecco 2.45 Wisecracker 3.20 Pagero 3.55 Forgot o Ask 4.25 Dollnamix
4.55 Archimento 5.25 The Boola Bee
Wolverhampton 5.10 Guroor 5.45 Informed Front 6.15 Prince Consort 6.45 Landing Night 7.15 Progressive Rating 7.45 Mojave 8.15 Tails I Win
Chelmsford City 5.30 Moorland Spirit 6.00 Aquascape 6.30 Zeimaam 7.00 Atletico 7.30 Mary Somerville 8.00 Parknacilla 8.30 Jeweller
Tips by Greg Wood
