Bay Bridge Looks To Defend The QIPCO Champion Stakes

Bay Bridge faces new Group 1 challengers in his bid to repeat last year’s success in the QIPCO Champion Stakes, not least his stablemate and 2022 Derby winner Desert Crown and this year’s French Derby winner Ace Impact.

The five-year-old upstaged both the brilliant Baaeed and the 2021 Derby winner Adayar in a pulsating finish a year ago, with the race going on to be recognised as the best race in Europe in the 2022 Longines World’s Best Horserace rankings.

Bay Bridge will need more of the same if faced by this year’s three-year-old stars Ace Impact and Paddington, the latter who also holds a Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO) entry. Trainer Sir Michael Stoute bridged a 22-year gap between race winners with Bay Bridge last year after Kalanisi struck at the start of the millennium. Both Bay Bridge and Desert Crown have the same set of entries in the run-up to QIPCO British Champions Day.

Bay Bridge is in great form but we are waiting for some good ground

The Juddmonte International, Irish Champion and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe are the other three races under consideration for the Newmarket stable’s stars.

James Savage, Stoute’s assistant trainer, said: “Bay Bridge is in great form but we are waiting for some good ground. He won’t be running on fast ground and wouldn’t be going to York or Ireland if that was the case. Then it would be France or back to Ascot for the Champion.

“Desert Crown is also in great form and the Juddmonte International and the Irish Champion at Leopardstown is the initial plan before Ascot.”

Some 34 horses from across Europe have been entered for Europe’s most valuable mile and a quarter race, including no fewer than 17 individual Group 1 winning horses who, between them, have accumulated 28 wins at the highest level.

Mostahdaf joined the Group 1 elite with his impressive win in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on his last outing.

Angus Gold, Shadwell’s racing manager, said: “He is on course for the Juddmonte International and then we will be watching the weather for Ascot.”

Betfred Derby runner-up King Of Steel, third in the recent King George VI & Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes, could drop back in distance for the QIPCO Champion Stakes, having won the 1m 4f King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot. While he also holds an entry in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO).

Trainer Roger Varian said: “King of Steel had a hard race at Ascot but he came out of it well and I’m very pleased with him and he deserves an entry in the QIPCO Champion Stakes.”

My Prospero, beaten under a length in third by Bay Bridge in last year’s race, also features among the entries.

Ace Impact included in strong field

There is a strong entry of five horses from France, led by the unbeaten three-year-old Ace Impact, who won the Prix du Jockey Club (the French Derby) in June.

Ace Impact is rated just a pound behind Paddington in the Longines World rankings and a pound ahead of Derby winner Auguste Rodin and Bay Bridge to make for a winner takes all showdown at Ascot.

Also entered from across the channel is last year’s Grand Prix de Paris winner and Irish Champion Stakes runner-up Onesto and the three-year-old Horizon Dore, trained by Patrice Cottier, who has won over 10 furlongs twice in France this season, most recently in the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam at Saint-Cloud last month.