After 92 earlier qualifying races, the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series reaches its conclusion with the Oct. 18 Champion Stakes (G1) at Ascot Racecourse.
With European stars Ombudsman, Delacroix, and Calandagan topping the 11-horse field, it provides a fitting ending to the international series that began all the way back in December when Intense for Me captured the Carlos Pellegrini (G1) in Argentina.
The Champions Stakes favorite, Ombudsman, already has an automatic, expense-paid berth into the Breeders' Cup—two in fact. His victory in the June 18 Prince of Wales's Stakes (G1) at Ascot earned him entry into the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) at 1 1/2 miles on the Del Mar grass, and a later triumph in the Aug. 20 International Stakes (G1) at York Racecourse into the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at 1 1/4 miles on the Del Mar main track. The latter berth is expected to be declined; Ombudsman is a turf horse.
And an elite one at that. He is the top-rated horse in the world based on the latest Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings, holding a 128 rating, ahead of four others tied for second at 127—Daryz, Field of Gold, Forever Young, and Sovereignty. Delacroix, among a group tied for sixth, and Calandagan, tied for ninth, are rated at 126 and 125, respectively.
Whether Ombudsman, jointly trained by John and Thady Gosden, or any other late additions from the full Champions Day card head to the Breeders' Cup depends on their performance and how well they exit their races. Coming just two weeks before the Breeders' Cup, and with extended travel required to go to California, there is little margin for error, or perhaps more specifically, fatigue.
The past two years, a pair of Champions Day starters have gone to California to run. In 2024, Content ran sixth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T) and 3-year-old filly Wingspan finished fifth against older males in the Breeders' Cup Turf, both for trainer Aidan O'Brien. A year earlier at Santa Anita Park, the Roger Varian-trained King of Steel ran fifth in the Turf and O'Brien's Broome was last of 11 in the same race.
John Gosden, who began his legendary training career in Southern California—running horses there for about a decade before returning to his native England—is, like O'Brien, a regular at the Breeders' Cup. He won the inaugural Breeders' Cup Mile with Royal Heroine in 1984 when he trained in California, and has since added five other Breeders' Cup victories, the most recent of which came from Inspiral in the 2023 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T).
When conditions are right, Gosden is not one to shy from a challenge. His stable star, Juddmonte filly Enable, won back-to-back runnings of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) in 2017-18, and in 2018 at age 4, Enable became the first horse to win the Arc and the Breeders' Cup Turf in the same year.
In withdrawing Ombudsman from consideration for last month's Irish Champions Stakes (G1), a race Delacroix would go on to win, Gosden said the aim was to freshen Ombudsman for the Champions Stakes, Breeders' Cup Turf, and the Japan Cup (G1).
One hurdle to Ombudsman's participation in the Breeders' Cup this year is simply the about 1 1/4-mile Champions Stakes is a demanding, competitive race. Whoever wins is expected to have to dig deep. Also, Ombudsman races for Godolphin, which already has the Charlie Appleby-trained Rebel's Romance pointed to the Turf, a race the established world traveler took in 2024 and 2022.
Ombudsman is proven at Ascot, but that also is true of Aga Khan Stud's Calandagan. The Francis-Henri Graffard trainee returns to the scene of his King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) triumph, coming in his previous start July 26.
Delacroix, a 3-year-old owned by the Coolmore-affiliated owners of Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Michael Tabor, does not have that Ascot experience, but he's posted grade 1 victories this year from Sandown Park to Leopardstown. He also won at Newmarket and the Curragh as a juvenile.
