Ascot Hosts British Champions Day
Taking place at Ascot on 15 October 2011, the QIPCO British Champions Day is promoted as “Britain’s Richest Ever Raceday” and looks set to become a highlight on the British horseracing calendar of events. Launched on Saturday 30 April at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile racecourse, the QIPCO is a new British horseracing series comprising of five championship categories – Sprint, Mile, Middle Distance, Long Distance, and Fillies & Mares. Featuring seven of the top races within the individual categories, the 28-day series aims to bring together some of the world’s finest racehorses, their jockeys and trainers at leading British racecourses –Ascot, Epsom Downs, Doncaster, Goodwood, Newbury, Haydock Park and Newmarket.
The QUIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot is the climax of the series which incorporates key festivals in flat racing, such as the QIPCO Guineas Festival, Royal Ascot, the Investec Derby Festival, Glorious Goodwood, the July Festival, the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival and the Ladbrokes St Leger Meeting. Offering a purse of more than £3 million, the QIPCO British Champions Series is making history as the richest fixture in Britain, as well as being the venue for 2011 flat racing stars to gather and compete in an action-packed program, in front of thousands of cheering fans, as the finale of the season.
Horses are ranked by means of their official international ratings, based on their best performances recorded by the BHA handicappers and international racing authorities. Moreover, a horse needs to have finished in first, second or third place in a QIPCO British Champions Series race for it to enter a category rating table. These rankings, while not being specific to the QIPCO series, serve as a record and indication of the top competitors in series races. With rankings in brackets, the Sprint category includes Dream Ahead (1), Bated Breath (2), Society Rock (3), Sole Power (=) and Prohibit (5); the Mile category includes Frankel (1), Canford Cliffs (2), and Excelebration (3), Goldikova (4) and Worthadd (5); the Middle Distance category includes Nathaniel (1), Rewilding (2), Workforce (3), So You Think (=) and Twice Over (5); the Long Distance category includes Masked Marvel (1), Sea Moon (2), Fame and Glory (=), Brown Panther (4) and Opinion Poll (5); and the Fillies & Mares category includes Immortal Verse (1), Snow Fairy (=) , Midday (3), Sahpresa (4) and Blue bunting (=).
