Dubai: Major honours are on the line at Ascot this Saturday when the world famous racecourse plays host to British Champions Day, the glittering finale of the 2017 UK flat racing season.
A mouth-watering card of six high-quality races has attracted some of the best thoroughbreds from across Europe who will vie for record prize money of £4.3 million (Dh20.86 million).
But there is a lot more at stake.
Several of Saturday’s runners are strong contenders for a Cartier Racing Award, European racing’s equivalent of the Oscars, and will be looking to seal victory in one of the eight equine categories by winning at Ascot.
Godolphin, the Dubai-owned stable, have three Cartier candidates. Barney Roy, who heads the competitive Three-Year-Old Colt category with 116 points, can confirm himself a Cartier winner by taking the Group 1 Champion Stakes, the most prestigious of Ascot’s six races.
Standing in his path is dual Guineas’ hero Churchill (104).
Two other Godolphin-owned horses, Harry Angel (100) and Thunder Snow (90), are also prominently placed going into Saturday.
Thunder Snow holds an entry for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes while Harry Angel, who also heads the standings for the Cartier Sprinter Award, is set to run in the British Champions Sprint as he bids for a third Group 1 success over six furlongs in 2017.
Harry Angel faces some tough opposition in the £600,000 Sprint led by Irish-trained speedball Caravaggion (56), The Tin Man and Quiet Reflection.
Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine Enable (208) holds a comfortable lead in the Cartier Horse of the Year category, ahead of Winter (164), Ulysses (152) and Godolphin’s Ribchester (142).
With 32 points at stake for a victory Enable’s Cartier crown will not come under threat but the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes still looks a cracking race with a line-up featuring three-race scorer Beat The Bank, Churchill, Al Wukair and Thunder Snow.
Harry Herbert, Cartier’s racing consultant, commented: “We are all set for enthralling racing at Ascot on QIPCO British Champions Day, which is highly likely to have a major impact on the standings for the 2017 Cartier Racing Awards.
“The European season is entering its final weeks, but there is still the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, California and Melbourne Cup Carnival in Australia to look forward to.”
The 2017 Cartier Racing Awards, which were established in 1991 to reward excellence in horseracing, will be presented on November 14.
