Powerful Glory at 200-1 leads shocks to electrify Ascot on Champions Day

Calandagan became only the second horse ever to win the King George and Champion Stakes in the same season at Ascot, matching the achievement of the great Brigadier Gerard in 1972, but it was a very different moment of racing history that may stick longest in the memories of many racegoers at the track.

When Qirat set a record for the longest-priced victory in a British Group One race with a 150-1 success in the Sussex Stakes in August, it seemed likely to remain unmatched for years if not decades, but instead his tenure as elite British racing’s unlikeliest winner lasted only until mid-October and Powerful Glory’s 200-1 win in the Champions Sprint.

It was the most astonishing result on a day that also saw a 100-1 success for Cicero’s Gift in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and unlike Qirat’s front-running success at Goodwood, where an apparent pacemaker was ignored until it was too late, Powerful Glory came late with a perfectly timed challenge under Jamie Spencer.

The noise from the crowd had been building to a climax as Lazzat, the 2-1 favourite, hit the front inside the final furlong. After Spencer had edged out Lazzat by a neck, however, there was only the rustling of racecards as punters checked the winner’s identity and searched for anything in Powerful Glory’s form that might have hinted at such an unexpected success.

Richard Fahey’s colt had beaten only one rival in two starts earlier in the season, finishing eighth of nine on his three-year-old debut, admittedly in a Group Two contest, before trailing in last of five in a conditions race at Beverley in September. But he was unbeaten in two starts as a juvenile and Fahey insisted afterwards that, shocking though it was for the punters, Saturday’s race had been “the plan all year, genuinely”.

Fahey added that his colt “genuinely had excuses for his two starts this year and we’ve seen the real Powerful Glory today”. While Spencer said afterwards that he had been reminded of his 80-1 success on Khaadem in the Jubilee Stakes here in June 2023 as he studied the form on Saturday morning.

“I thought when I saw the horse was 80-1 this morning, well, Khaadem was 80-1, so you never know,” Spencer said. “But not in your wildest dreams are you expecting to win after finishing last in a five-runner conditions race.

Jason Watson rides 100-1 shot Cicero’s Gift to success in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

“Powerful Glory is a good horse and travelled nicely. I thought I was going to be placed, and all of a sudden I thought: ‘I actually have a chance’. It is a different set of emotions as the race progressed, I am just glad that it worked out.”

Powerful Glory did not go entirely unbacked and Ladbrokes reported taking 400 bets on the winner either online or in betting shops, including a £50 each-way stake that returned £12,000. But his win set the tone for an unprecedented afternoon which saw two Group One winners at a three-figure starting price, as Charlie Hills’s Cicero’s Gift registered a similarly shocking success in the QEII.

“I am speechless,” Hills, who lost his father, the legendary trainer Barry, in June, said afterwards. “It has been a really tough year for us at home, but we are a tight family and we’ve stuck strong. The old man would be looking down and would be so chuffed,.”

Given all that had gone before, it is a wonder that anyone had any betting cash left as the field went to post for the Champion Stakes, the last of the day’s five Group One events, but punters who went in again on Calandagan, the 15-8 second-favourite, were rewarded with a decisive defeat of Ombudsman, the 13-8 favourite.

The win set the seal on an immense season for Francis-Henri Graffard, Calandagan’s trainer, who took the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Daryz two weeks ago and has long since been assured of victory in the French trainers’ championship for the first time.

“He’s a fantastic horse, his work coming into this race was incredible and he loves this track,” Graffard said. “Mickaël [Barzalona, his jockey] knows him very well and when he got him into stride in the straight, he was so good to watch. Ombudsman was trying to challenge him but he couldn’t get past my very good horse.

“Last year [when Calandagan finished a half-length second] we were on the inner course, he had an inside draw and it was very tactical and everything went against us. I was very upset with myself and the instructions I gave the jockey last year, but we know him well now and he’s shown there he is a fantastic horse.

“I was very stressed before the race as I was unsure what the tactics should be, but it worked out well and it’s easy when you have a champion.”