Champion Stakes Big Race Verdict: Calandagan can serve it up to 'em in Ascot showcase

• Ground a deciding factor to split the big three 

• Ombudsman strong on the Sportsbook for Ascot's big race 

• Alan Dudman delivers the Big Race Verdict for Saturday's Champion Stakes 

Delacroix inclusion adds to the intrigue for round three

Aidan O'Brien revealed last Saturday to the ITV cameras that Delacroix was going to take his chance in the Champion Stakes - which was great news for Ascot, a boost for potential attendances and viewing figures, but less so for backers of Ombudsman.

The scoreline at the moment reads 1-1, so the weekend is very much the decider with Ombudsman well on top from his Juddmonte International performance with Delacroix's scalp in the Eclipse back in July the equaliser.

Already billed as the race of the season, the headline scribes are going overboard on those two with the match, and rightly so, we need to big up these stars, but Calandagan shouldn't be forgotten in this rich tapestry of a preview, after all, a BHA rating of 125 means he is hardly a forgotten horse.

Ground conditions and what to expect

An unusually dry autumn has altered the math here as long term, you'd expect soft or heavy for this fixture, or certainly the dedicated nostalgists would.

A severe lack of rain means a chance, god forbid, of quick ground,

"As of Monday morning we've got good ground on the Straight course and we're good, good to soft in places on the Round course," said Chris Stickels at the start of the week.

"We're not expecting much rain through the week, with just a few light showers in the forecast, so I'd expect that we will be racing on a mixture of good and good to firm ground on Saturday."

Market moves for Saturday

Delacroix with able deputy dawg Christophe Soumillon confirmed on Thursday didn't create any sort of ripple on the Sportsbook later in the afternoon with the ace Ballydoyle colt at 5/23.50, half a point behind Ombudsman at 2/13.00 intially before a little change on Thursday evening with the latter into 15/82.88. 

But that's all change on Friday morning. Delacroix has drifted out to 3/14.00 third favourite at the time of writing, with Ombudsman backed into 13/82.63. Calandagan splits the pair at 11/43.75.

Super Soumy said of Delacroix last month on Luck On Sunday: "The way he showed his turn of foot at Sandown in the Eclipse was just something unbelievable, and I've never seen a horse be able to catch a superstar like Ombudsman on the line like he did.

"After Saturday's win, he has just confirmed that he's probably one of the best horses in Europe at the moment."

Fox Legacy from 20/121.00 into 14/115.00 was a significant change, but there wasn't an awful lot of activity.

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Calandagan up there on figures

Ombudsman was a 5lb better horse prior to the Sandown Eclipse field in the summer after is dazzling display at Royal Ascot, but it was Delacroix who improved significantly on his own Timeform figure as he went into the race with 123p against Ombudsman's 135 weight adjusted.

The figures from the Halifax massive makes this is a must-watch, and dare I say with better ground we've got the stellar line up.

Calandagan, is second on the Timeform list of top older horses in Europe with 129 plays Ombudsman's 130 while Delacroix only has two superior horses to him in the three-year-old top Euro horses at 129.

Tactics and the added luxury of a pacemaker

Devil's Advocate, winner of a Doncaster handicap at the St Leger meeting and with a Timeform master rating of 111, has been supplemented into the race to carry out the role of the hare, much to the disgust of the folk on X.

Uproar concerning whether the horse has a chance or not, I am not sure what all the fuss is about. A pacemaker role and duties have been going on for a long time, and the clamour to highlight to a newbie this rather obvious point the entire racing world is aware of is nonsense.

If you want to back a pacemaker at a big price like Qirat, well done. If you don't, well done too. We don't have to spoon feed details to people that have no interest in the sport.

I really don't see what the argument is.

The "big three" all like to be held up so the trio could all come late while Fox Legacy, the market mover, tends be ridden up with the pace but his form is in handicaps. 

Breakdown of the sectional beasts 

Ombudsman has the explosive kick and his Prince Of Wales's Stakes triumph was a fine advert for this particular weapon, as his final furlong was the quickest at 11.82 seconds and this was also in the face of overcoming some trouble as he didn't get the clearest of passages either.

His Juddmonte closing sectional was zippy too; running 10.94 from three to two and the early pace at York was fast.

Delacroix is clearly hitting some sort of peak after his non-staying Derby run, and overcoming the stop=start gallop in the Eclipse earlier in the season produced one of the fastest final furlongs in the history of the Sandown race according to the excellent Simon Rowlands - recorded at 12.39 versus Ulysses' 12.54 in 2017. My Sea The Stars ram 12.80 for his and he is way down the list.

His Irish Champion Stakes success when last seen was from off the pace and on good to yielding.

Calandagan can boast his own impressive sectionals - as his run in the Grand Prix De Saint Cloud at the top level earlier in the season was immense, running a penultimate furlong in an eye-popping 10.76 seconds, which for a 1m4f horse is something to shout from the rooftops a la maisons. The final three furlongs in that were equally stunning and the performance was four seconds quicker than two of the handicaps on the card.

In short, that tells us he is more than just a 1m4f horse at the highest level and will be able to compete off a strong, likely pace.

Big Race Verdict

A cogent case can be made for all three at the head of the market as each possesses stardust, but Calandagan's record at Ascot reads 1-1-2, and his runner-up spot in the race 12 months ago was on soft ground, which is not his best.

He finished second to City Of Troy in the Juddmonte last term too, but I have a feeling he is a better horse now and is truly hitting his peak if with a little quirk. He stays further, so the pacemaker will suit him just as much, if not the X fellows and conditions could be dreamlike for him, just what Calandagan requires.

Of the others, Economics bled in the race 12 months ago and hasn't been seen all year, while Andre Fabre's First Look is a 1m2f specialist, travels and finds for pressure, but surely he wants it soft? Almeric won a Doonside Cup last time and his prize money earned thus far is peppercorn rent in comparison to the racing millionaires.

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