Premier sells out for QIPCO British Champions Day

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Racegoers are being encouraged to secure their tickets to QIPCO British Champions Day after both King Edward VII Enclosure and Winning Post (both within the former Premier area) sold out, with only tickets for the Queen Anne Enclosure (Grandstand) now available.

Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday 15 October is the richest ever raceday in Britain with £4.2 million in prize money and boasts an unrivalled card in the UK comprising four Group 1 contests, a Group 2 and the richest mile handicap in Europe.

Record entries were made for the day back in August and some of the most exciting horses in Europe are targeting the day. Amongst those with Ascot on the agenda is Jean-Claude Rouget’s brilliant French colt Almanzor who is entered in the £1.3 million QIPCO Champion Stakes. The French Derby winner was having his first run outside his native country when showing a great turn of foot to land the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes at the expense of seven other Group 1 winners at Leopardstown on Saturday evening.

Rouget believes that the colt is at his best over the mile and a quarter distance of the QIPCO Champion Stakes and said, “Ten furlongs for me is a good trip. For me the (best) option is the English race [Champion Stakes], because of the distance and we have two weeks more. If he was mine he would run at Ascot. He could run in the Arc next year.”

As well as thrilling action on track, QIPCO British Champions Day will also see the crowning of the Stobart Champion Flat Jockey and the Champion Owner. Currently, defending Champion, Silvestre De Sousa (99) trails former jump jockey Jim Crowley (102), the only jockey to have ridden a century during the Championship, with the race likely to go down to the wire. You can keep up to date with the battle here.

A star-studded after-party headlined by chart-topping Sigala and BBC Radio 2’s Sara Cox will bring the curtain down on a thrilling day’s racing. Under 18s go free and, following on from the success of last two years, 2,500 students will again be able to attend for FREE.