Golden Horn heads 46 entries for £1.3m QIPCO Champion Stakes

The winners of no fewer than 64 Group 1 races, including 15 European Classics, have been entered for the £4.1m QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday 17 October, the nation’s richest raceday and the first time that a single British card has featured four Group 1 races.

The feature £1.3m QIPCO Champion Stakes is the richest mile and a quarter race in Europe and has attracted 46 entries, up from 37 last year.

Potential runners include the Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner, and last year’s third-placed horse, Free Eagle, the evergreen Cirrus des Aigles, together with the unbeaten Derby winner, Golden Horn, recent King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes hero, Postponed, and Time Test, a hugely impressive scorer in the Tercentenary Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The Grey Gatsby who ran creditably at Royal Ascot and most recently in the Coral-Eclipse, is entered for Kevin Ryan whilst an international line-up of entries includes dual Guineas winner, Gleneagles, who also holds an entry in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO), while Germany could rely on its own Guineas victor, Karpino.

The highest money-earner in the history of European racing, Cirrus des Aigles, is the only horse to have run in all four renewals of QIPCO British Champions Day since its inception in 2011 and is set to make it five straight appearances in the QIPCO Champion Stakes. He won it in 2011 and has subsequently finished second twice and fifth last year.

Winner of the Group 1 Prix Ganay back in May but not seen on a racecourse since suffering a fetlock injury a few weeks later, his trainer, Corine Barande-Barbe, said: “Cirrus des Aigles is recovering well from his injury and is on schedule to run in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown as a prep race for the QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot, with the Prix Dollar a possibility in between the two.”

The full entries for the QIPCO Champion Stakes are:

Air Pilot (GB),Ajman Bridge (GB),Ayrad (IRE),Balios (IRE),Cirrus des Aigles (FR),Convey (GB),Dariyan (FR),Decorated Knight (GB),Diamondsandrubies (IRE),Eagle Top (GB),Ectot (GB),Elm Park (GB), Erupt (IRE), Fascinating Rock (IRE), Fluff (IRE), Found (IRE), Free Eagle (IRE), Gleneagles (IRE), Golden Horn (GB), Highland Reel (IRE), Intilaaq (USA), Jack Hobbs (GB), Karaktar (IRE), Karpino (GER), Lightning Spear (GB), Mahsoob (GB), Maverick Wave (USA), Morning Mix (IRE), Mutakayyef (GB), Ol’ Man River (IRE), Ooty Hill (GB), Palace Prince (GER), Postponed (IRE), Rembrandt Van Rijn (IRE), Ribbons (GB), Sir Isaac Newton (GB), Success Days (IRE), Sumbal (IRE), Tapestry (IRE), The Corsican (IRE), The Grey Gatsby (IRE), Time Test (GB), Tullius (IRE), Vadamos (FR), We Are (IRE), Wedding Vow (IRE).