Real heavyweights were in town in mid-October — not the Sumo wrestlers debuting in London, but the stars of Britain`s grandest race day, Qipco Champions Day at Ascot, the UK`s answer to India`s Invitation Cup. With packed fields, roaring crowds, and nearly two and a half million pounds in prize money, the event had it all — especially Calandagan`s commanding triumph.

Oisin Murphy claimed his fifth jockeys` title, though his off-track escapades threaten to derail his brilliance. From Fred Archer to Dettori, racing`s greats have shared this curse — genius intertwined with self-destruction, proving that the finest often gallop perilously close to the edge.The irony was the Champion Stakes (Group 1) winner is disqualified from taking on his contemporaries in other championship races like the Prix de l`Arc de Triomphe, because Calandagan is a gelding. So too is the Stayers Champion (Group 1) Trawlerman and Cicero`s Gift, winner of the mile championship, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Group 1) in which he`d been bottom rated of the sixteen contestants and consequently started at 100-1! Top that?

Well in the Sprint Championship (Group 1) the winner Powerful Glory did indeed top that – at 200-1! Admittedly Powerful Glory (Cotai Glory-Wouldntitbelovely) did, at two, win last year`s Mill Reef Stakes (Group 2) but on his latest start he`d finished last of five in an inconsequential race at lowly Beverley. At Ascot last weekend he finished first of fourteen beating the Royal Ascot Jubilee Sprint (Group One) winner Lazzat. Insane and inexplicable form.

Just as unfathomable was Cicero`s Gift (Muhaarar-Terentia). On this day a year ago he couldn`t feature in the Balmoral Handicap that closed the card, yet in this Mile Championship he beat Classic winners! The usually prolific trainers of Powerful Glory and Cicero`s Gift, Richard Fahey and Charlie Hills respectively, had been experiencing their worst seasons – transformed in a single afternoon.

This was racing as it was meant to be – dramatic, uplifting, unpredictable in front of a crowd if not of Royal Ascot proportions, at 31,000 well up on the previous year. Calandagan (Gleneagles-Calayana) was gelded after his two-year-old debut and has not been out of the first two in sixteen outings since. He would surely have challenged strongly for the Prix de l`Arc had he been permitted entry. Instead his Aga Khan stable companion Daryz proved much more than a substitute winning the European championship middle distance race for France`s training phenomenon Francis Henri Graffard. He had galloped the pair together at Chantilly in preparation for their defining victories. Which one came out best? Which would stable jockey Mikael Barzalona have chosen had they been able to race against one another on the track? There are things you don`t ask because it`s unlikely you`ll get an answer. They are not scheduled to race against one another. Calandagan`s next assignment is the Japan Cup in November. Daryz stays in training with his four-year-old season directed solely at a second Prix de l`Arc.

Calandagan, even after beating Kalpana in the summer middle distance championship at Ascot, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr1) was a little under the radar alongside Godolphin`s Ombudsman and Coolmore`s Delacroix who were duelling for the third time this season but were no match for the French gelding. Given that Kalpana, only seventh in the Prix de l`Arc, had restored her reputation in the Fillies & Mares (Group 1) earlier in the afternoon, Calandagan`s chances were obvious.

Calandagan bossed the big race of a climactic afternoon. and Graffard continues to give master classes, winning Group One races for fun in his native France - and now crossing the English Channel to conquer abroad. Graffard said: "I was very stressed because I was expecting more tactics to defeat us” – no doubt referring to Daryz`s defeat at York where pacemakers upset the rhythm of the Group One Juddmonte – and Calandagan being similarly caught out by City of Troy in the 2024 Juddmonte.

"We haven`t been greedy with him (this was just a fifth race of the season for the four-year-old) and he`s giving back to us now. He`s a star."

Powerful Glory`s 200-1 stunner (yes that is the correct number of noughts) leapt over Qirat, the summer`s winner of the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood at 150-1, as biggest priced Group One winner of all time. The cheers of the scant few who backed the day`s two massive priced winners weren`t as loud as the hurrahs from the bookmakers. They`d been waiting to get their own back since many of them lost their shirts on Franke Dettori`s ‘Magnificent Seven` through the card at Ascot back in 1996. That epic cost bookmakers £30m. Powerful Glory and Cicero`s Gift were ‘skinners`. It is said that if you are ‘skinning` someone leave a little epidermis to grow so you can skin them again. At least Calandagan as 15/8 second favourite, Trawlerman (Golden Horn-Tidespring) at odds on and Kalpana (Study of Man-Zero Gravity) another favourite, this time in the Champion Fillies and Mares (Group One), restored some equilibrium (if not quite sanity) to proceedings.

Where do Powerful Glory and Cicero`s Gift go from here? Much will be expected of them next time. As it will of Calandagan in Tokyo where no foreign horse since Newmarket-trained Alkaased, ridden by Dettori, twenty years ago. The Japanese guard their multi-million signature race, But the Graffard/Aga Studs team have the Japanese in their sights having beaten three of their best in the Prix de l`Arc with Daryz.

The Champions Day results at Ascot certainly weren`t down to the ground – often a bog for this fag end of the season meeting but run this time on near perfect going. No Champions Day would be complete without Coolmore reaching the podium and juvenile Mission Central (No Nay Never-Thar She Blows), ridden by French champion jockey Christophe Soumillon once more substituting for the injured Ryan Moore, won the newly instituted conditions race for two-year-olds. Mission Central suffered a blip at Doncaster in his previous race and had been gelded into the bargain, so the top races such as the Derby are out of his reach too.

The debate over whether geldings should be allowed to test the colts rumbles on.

There was just a possibility that Andrew Balding, in what has been his anus mirabilis for races and money won, might have accumulated enough prizes on Champions Day to challenge Aidan O`Brien for the trainer`s title - which has a couple of months to run. But that did not transpire despite Kalpana`s victory and despite Balding having trained no less than 150 winners more than his Irish rival – but much less prize money. O`Brien won the Derby with Lambourn, the prize going a long way to securing the title. Even if Lambourn lost the shine from his reputation afterwards, let`s not damn this season ‘non-vintage` – every year the grape harvest is vintage – just some are good, some exceptional - or undrinkable.

Raise a toast to Wootton Bassett recently deceased and much lamented champion Coolmore sire. He had the last word at Ascot when his son Crown of Oaks, nostalgically, landed the concluding race, the Balmoral Handicap. Unfortunately Crown of Oaks, with an illustrious family of six siblings all rated 100 plus, is also a gelding.

Oisin Murphy was crowned top jockey for a fifth time and the only threat to him through the season has been his own peccadillos - outside racing. They included a car crash and it is to be hoped Murphy can control his demons, something that champion jockeys through the ages have found difficult - from Fred Archer who committed suicide, to Lester Piggott jailed for tax violations – the same problem that beset Frankie Dettori in more recent times. Finding gaps in the law and gaps on the track seem to come alike to the best of them. But retribution can be condign.

Godolphin were top owner for the 17th time no less. The British Turf never seems to be quite as appreciative as it might for Sheikh Mohammed`s enduring contribution. There have been bumps in the road such as the doping scandal associated with one of his former trainers but there is nothing but respect for his principal trainer Charlie Appleby and jockey William Buick both of whose conduct and willingness to communicate are exemplary.

The same can be said of master trainer Aidan O`Brien. His principal job now is to replace Wootton Bassett whose recent death robs Coolmore operation of the stallion who had looked to be the natural successor to their all-time champion sire, Galileo.

Wootton Bassett`s untimely departure has sent shockwaves across the bloodstock sector. Despite famously standing for as little as 4,000 euros during his early years in France, his fee had risen to 300,000 euros for the latest covering season. Only Dubawi and Frankel, both of whom stand at £350,000, commanded higher fees for their services in 2025.

Wootton Bassett had already covered a book of 206 mares. Having covered books of 223 mares in 2024 and 206 during the latest breeding season, he still has plenty of young stock to further embellish his reputation. However, his progeny now possess an increasing scarcity factor that will only heighten demand for his offspring, even if topping last year`s £4.3m record for a European Sales yearling was out of reach, this year at least.

The great stallion`s European yearling average is already running at just shy of 450,000 euros for the current sales season. Financial crisis in racing? What crisis? Ah we will all have to wait for next month`s Budget and the proposed tax rises on gambling for the answer to that one.