Aidan O’ Brien gunning for success with strong team set for tomorrow’s QIPCO British Champions Day

Aidan O’Brien will have his biggest QIPCO British Champions Day team since 2020 when his outstanding stayer Kyprios leads six Group 1 winners among a squad of eight for the UK’s richest raceday. In addition, he will also celebrate being crowned Champion Trainer for a seventh time. 

Kyprios became O’Brien’s winning most Group 1 representative when landing an eighth top level win in the Prix Du Cadran at Longchamp 13 days ago. He is unbeaten in six races this season, including the Gold Cup at Ascot, the Goodwood Cup, the Irish St Leger and the Cadran, each of which he also won two years ago in another unbeaten campaign.

Irish Cesarewitch winner The Euphrates joins him in the QIPCO British Long Distance Cup, a race the stable has won three times already. 

Irish Derby winner Los Angeles, who was a bold front-running third behind Bluestocking in the Prix de l’Arc De Triomphe, is joined in the QIPCO Champion Stakes by 2023 St Leger winner Continuous, while last year’s Group 1 National Stakes winner Henry Longfellow flies the flag for Ballydoyle in the QEII Stakes.

The stable’s three representatives in the QIPCO British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes include the only runners to have already won at Group 1 level, Content having won the Yorkshire Oaks and Grateful the Prix de Royallieu. They are joined by the improving Wingspan.

O’Brien took the first race ever run on QIPCO British Champions Day when Fame And Glory won the 2011 Long Distance Cup. He hasn’t had a winner at the meeting since Magical in the 2019 Champion Stakes five years ago, but the strength of the team he is sending underlines how important the day is to him.

“It’s always an important part of our programme and that we haven’t had a winner there for a while just shows how competitive it is there,” he said. “You have to have the right horse to win at Ascot in October, as the going can be very tough at this time of the year, but we’ve got one of our bigger teams going there this year.”

Kyprios the star act of QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup duo

Previous winners: 2011 Fame and Glory, 2017 Order Of St George, 2019 Kew Gardens 

“Kyprios has come back from Longchamp well and we are very happy with him. He obviously hasn’t done much since then, but he seems to be in good form.

“He’s obviously an unbelievable horse to do what he’s done every run this year, and last year too really, as he’d only just come back from injury. I don’t think we could even have dreamed he’d do as well as he has after his injury last year. What’s he’s done is just incredible.

“He had a couple of runs in his build up for the Gold Cup, and to go on from there to Goodwood, the Irish St Leger and then to France is just incredible. It’s unbelievable to have him around still to compete in races like this at this time of the year, and although this is back to a Group 2 we had it pencilled in for him after France if he came out of the race well.

“Hopefully he’ll be back again next year too. We’ll get him through the winter and then back for a couple of runs again before the Gold Cup again. He’s incredible.”

“The Euphrates ran very well in the Irish St Leger and then went back to the Curragh and won the Irish Cesarewitch. That was a big handicap prize and we think he’s a horse who is very much on the upgrade.”

Classy Pertemps Network Yorshire Oaks heroine Content heads trio of Fillies & Mares

Previous winners: 2017 Hydrangea, 2018 Magical

“Content likes the mile and a half and she has form on soft ground. France was a bit of a non event, as it was back to a mile and a quarter and they went very slow. She always wears earplugs, but in France you aren’t allowed to run in earplugs unless you wear a hood, so she obviously had to wear both, which might have been too much for her. We put her run there down to a combination of all those things, and we have to put a line through it.

“Grateful is a classy filly with an unbelievable pedigree (by Galileo out of Tepin, who won the Breeders’ Cup Mile and the Queen Anne Stakes). Christophe (Soumillon) gave her a brilliant ride when she won the Prix de Royallieu, and he rides again. That was over a mile and six, but this race will ride like more than a mile and a half as it will be so testing, so hopefully she’ll run well again.

“Wingspan is on the upgrade big time. Ryan felt she was a little bit unlucky a few times, but she’s definitely improving and her mum Hydrangea won this race, so she got the mile and a half. We think she’ll handle the ease in the ground, and her work is stepping up every week.”

O’ Brien hopeful of improved showing from Longfellow in Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Sponsored by QIPCO)

Previous winners: 2012 Excelebration, 2016 Minding

“Henry Longfellow hasn’t had things go right for him yet this year. He just hasn’t had the rub of the green, and variables that we can’t control have gone against him so far, but he’s still run some very good races. Maybe that’s the way it’s going to be for him, but we don’t think we’ve seen the best of him.

“We are very happy with his work and he has form with ease in the ground. If he was back to his St James’s Palace form he’d be thereabouts.”

Los Angeles and Continuous out to emulate Magical in QIPCO Champion Stakes

Previous winner: 2019 Magical

“Los Angeles ran a fantastic race in the Arc. Ideally, we’d have preferred a lead, but nobody else was going to go on. He was just a little bit of a baby out in front, waiting for company the whole time, but he still ran a great race.

“He’s had a busy season but he’s a big, strong colt who has been coming out of his races well all year. Hopefully we’ll have him back next year, but that’s something for the lads to decide.

“Continuous ran in the Arc too but it was a bit of a non-event as he ran into the horse that was injured coming down the hill. Christophe said we could put a line through it, and he rides again. He’s had an easy season and his action suggests he’ll handle the ground, even though he handles fast ground as well.”