British Champions Day 2026 lived up to its name at Ascot last Saturday. The weather was fine, the crowd huge and youthful and the erstwhile champions, with the exception of the retired Guineas winner Bow Echo, were all in attendance. Incidentally there was £4.35 million on the table and five Group Ones.

But if any of the players stood out then the palm must be awarded to Billy Loughnane, crowned champion jockey at 20 - the youngest to win the title in a hundred years. Loughnane`s progress has stunned everybody in racing. His first winner came in November 2022. The next year he was champion apprentice. He rode his first classic winner on Bow Echo this year. Even the famous Sir Gordon Richards didn`t win the title until he was 21. Richards booted home 269 winners in 1947 – that`s the next record Loughnane has in his sights – he`s not far short.

The tyro had to kick his heels till he was sixteen to be able to ride under Rules having cut his teeth in the pony racing field. His motto “Work hard listen to the people around you and most importantly enjoy it. Make the most of every opportunity and never stop trying to improve” would fit most performer`s aspirations but when it is combined with a permanent smile and the optimism of youth – well he is racing`s biggest selling point – and we thought Frankie Dettori had left an unfillable gap.



There was no winner for Loughnane on the stellar Ascot card but then this was Godolphin`s day – three winners and a strong candidate for the ‘Horse of the Year` in Ombudsman (Night of Thunder-Syndicate by Dansili) who turned the tables on French gelding Calandagan, running away with the ten furlong Qatar Racing Champion Stakes (Gr1) in which the Frenchman had been the master a year ago. Bay City Roller, runner-up in the Prix de l`Arc de Triomphe to the acknowledged champion of Europe, Daryz, was third.

The victory of his five-year-old son, who may well be bound for stud himself (the Breeders` Cup is the only other option), probably sealed the champion sire`s title for Night of Thunder. It took Ombudsman`s career earnings to over £5 million.

Ombudsman, who was bouncing back from a fourth in York`s Juddmonte International, now has three Ascot wins to his name, having become the first horse in three decades to win back-to-back Prince Of Wales`s Stakes (Gr1) at the Royal Ascot.

Godolphin`s trainer on this occasion, John Gosden and his son Thady, said: “I thought William was riding him very confidently in the straight, and I thought, ‘When are you going to go?` Then he showed that turn of foot. The ground today is on the slow side of good, and he can handle that. At York, he just spun his wheels. This was a great performance in a small but classy field.”

Fifth Column (Kingman-Secret by Singspiel) also trained by Gosden father and son, and Talk of New York (Wootton Bassett-Usherette by Shamardal) saddled by Godolphin`s retained trainer Charlie Appleby, completed the treble for Sheikh Mohammed`s ‘boys in blue` operation. Fifth Column won the concluding race, a valuable handicap, on a card of four Group Ones which included Talk of New York`s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile.

Aboard the treble was retained jockey, former champion, William Buick. He, like Loughnane, is one of the game`s great assets, always ready to communicate. He commented: “It is a young crowd here today, it is packed, and it is a great atmosphere. This is what racing is all about – top-class and competitive racing. We have seen some absolute world-beaters out on the track, and it is lovely to see, and lovely that people are having a good time. Days like today make you realise what a great industry, sport, we are in.”

The vast majority of the 35,000 crowd – a higher attendance than the Derby or the Prix de l`Arc de Triomphe were hoping to cheer on a new champion trainer in the shape of Andrew Balding. Andrew succeeded his father Ian who died this year. Ian Balding was champion trainer once – in the great Mill Reef`s heyday – while Andrew has won races right across the board in 2026.

But the trainer`s title is decided on prize money and hopes were raised when Balding saddled the 33-1 shock winner Mount Atlas (Masaar-Highland Pass by Passing Glace) of the £500,000 Qatar Racing British Champions Long Distance Cup (Group 1). The victory was all the sweeter for Mount Atlas represented the Kingsclere Racing Club set up by Andrew and his wife Anna Lisa and whose runners bear the black and yellow silks carried by Mill Reef.

Then ‘normal service` was resumed. Aidan O`Brien, champion for the past two years and eight times in all, had thrown everything available at the meeting and regained the initiative when Minnie Hauk (Frankel-Multilingual by Dansili) overturned King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes form with Balding`s Kalpana in the Qatar Racing Fillies & Mares (Gr1) worth half a million pounds. Kalpana started strong favourite but her effort in the Prix de l`Arc de Triomphe may have taken the edge off and Minnie Hauk showed the strength in depth of the O`Brien juggernaut running out a comfortable winner, the crowd silenced.

Two other members of the O`Brien army, Gstaad and Constitution River, both hailed earlier in this season as potential champions – the former chasing home Bow Echo; the latter the emphatic French Derby winner, ran flat. Minnie Hauk came good at the right time – the first O`Brien Group One at the meeting since 2019.

This setback was the one real downer of the day for the crowd. And with nearly all the big prizes bar the Futurity at Doncaster at the beginning of November to play for – when the season ends – the betting is now heavily on O`Brien making it three in a row.

The master of Ballydoyle is already sketching the outline of the 2027 season. His Darkness Falls (Camelot-Yoursobeautiful by No Nay Never) won the Dewhurst Stakes (Gr1) at Newmarket last week. Three years ago, following City of Troy`s Dewhurst victory O`Brien felt bullish enough to say “This is the best horse I have ever trained” and there was talk of City of Troy the being first colt to win Triple Crown since Nijinsky 1970. Nijinsky also won the Dewhurst. A rematch showdown with Godolphin`s best Desert Castle (Frankel-Sand Castle by Dubawi) only a neck behind in the Dewhurst will probably have to wait until Guineas day next Spring.

Darkness Falls` sire Camelot`s Triple Crown attempt in 2012 was foiled by Encke who, given subsequent scandal over his trainer`s methods, could have been doped..

Records at Newmarket Tattersalls Book One Premier Sales came thick and fast – financial crisis? What crisis? Godolphin went to new record 4.6m gns for son of Night of Thunder out of My Astra by Lope de Vega. Total sales sky rocketed to a new record 26.9m gns total. And yet the opening race on Champions, not a Group contest but a hugely competitive race for two-year-olds, went to Night In Vegas (Lucky Vega-Strait Power by Power) who cost just 60,00ogns at the Sales and who has now amassed £720,000 in prize money – far far more than any other two-year-old. The Qatar Racing British Champions Day Conditions race for two-year-olds means he has now won three Sales races and six of his eight starts this season.

Last words to William Haggas who also enjoyed great success with Shadwell Stud`s Almeraq (Dark Angel- Munaajim by Muhaarar) in the £500,000 Qatar Racing British Champions Sprint (Gr1). “I said when we got here,” rejoiced Haggas who had had several places on the day, ‘I hope he has still got a song to sing`” ‘Elvis` being the nickname of ) . “And he had” said the trainer after the short-priced favourite confirmed himself the best British sprinter around with a third Group One victory of the season including a second success at Ascot this season following the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (Gr1) at Royal Ascot.

Haggas said: “He deserves to be Britain`s Champion Sprinter. He has come back from a bad fall at York last year. He is a really, really good horse.”

Ascot`s Champions Day was a ‘really, really great meeting.`