British Champions Day to Breeders’ Cup: Key stats for quick turnaround

With British Champions Day at Ascot positioned fairly close to the Breeders’ Cup, connections often opt for one major festival or the other. But some hardy souls do compete in both, and a few even manage to run very well on the quick turnaround. 

British filly Pebbles (1985) remains the only horse to achieve a Champion (G1)/Breeders’ Cup double, although her conquest came decades before the development of the Champions Day concept. She captured the 1 1/4-mile Champion at its ancient home, Newmarket, on Oct. 19, and on two weeks’ rest, she famously darted up the Aqueduct rail to prevail in the Nov. 2 Turf (G1). 

In 2011, the Champion was transferred to Ascot as the centerpiece of a new marquee day of racing. Several other long-established contests in different divisions were likewise grafted onto “British Champions Day.” 

Because British Champions Day provides a line of demarcation, so to speak, from the earlier era, we’ll consider the stats and trends emerging since its 2011 inception.

One trainer in particular is happy to wheel horses right back into the Breeders’ Cup – Aidan O’Brien. The prolific master of Ballydoyle has sent out 24 Breeders’ Cup runners on the relatively short rest from Ascot. By contrast, Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby and John Gosden have tried that gambit with only three runners apiece.

Of those 24 for O’Brien, eight finished in the top three in the Breeders’ Cup, making for a 33% in-the-money rate. Two more rounded out the superfecta in fourth. But the percentage increases to 40% if you remove the dirt experimenters and include only his turf performers.

Of the eight from Ballydoyle who ran well enough for a top-three placing, the lone winner was Found (2015). Runner-up in the Champion at Ascot, the three-year-old filly moved forward to foil odds-on favorite Golden Horn in the Turf at Keeneland. Found followed the same itinerary in the fall of 2016, but she peaked to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) and wound up second in the Champion and third in the Turf at Santa Anita. 

Fellow Ballydoyle distaffer Magical delivered top-tier efforts in defeat in both of her Breeders’ Cup Turf appearances. As a sophomore, she beat elders in the 2018 British Champions Fillies & Mares (G1) before succumbing narrowly to the great Enable at Churchill Downs. 

In 2019, Magical won the Champion over males, only to miss the Breeders’ Cup due to a fever. Brought back as a five-year-old in 2020, Magical maintained her stellar form until well into the fall, when she was third in her Champion title defense and runner-up again in the Turf at Keeneland. 

The other four O’Brien placegetters improved markedly from Ascot. Lancaster Bomber placed second in the 2017 Mile (G1) on his preferred ground at Del Mar, after bombing in 14th in the Queen Elizabeth II (G1) on soft going. Highland Reel, a distant third off a layoff in the Champion, was a much closer third when bidding to repeat in the Turf. 

O’Brien’s wildly improbable trifecta in the 2020 Mile included two rebounding from British Champions Day flops. Circus Maximus, 10th in the Queen Elizabeth II, and Lope Y Fernandez, seventh in the British Champions Sprint (G1), were a near-miss second and third, respectively, to 73-1 stablemate Order of Australia. 

The Ballydoyle record is even more interesting if viewed through the prism of the actual turnaround time. Occasionally, there is a three-week gap between British Champions Day and the Breeders’ Cup, but the typical spacing is just two weeks. 

O’Brien is the only trainer to win or even place in the Breeders’ Cup wheeling back from Champions Day on two weeks’ rest. While Found’s victory and Magical’s 2018 Turf placing came in Kentucky, Lancaster Bomber and Highland Reel produced excellent efforts shipping all the way out to Del Mar. 

Those four performances, from 15 Ballydoyle starters on the two-week turnaround, give O’Brien an in-the-money percentage of about 26.6%. If you eliminate three runners who were testing dirt, and stick to turf only, he’s hitting the top three at 33%.

That stat could prove to be significant with the Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar positioned, as usual, two weeks after the Ascot festival on Oct. 18.

The other two trainers who won a Breeders’ Cup race backing up from Ascot – the retired Sir Michael Stoute with Queen’s Trust (2016) and Appleby with Modern Games (2022) – had the extra week’s grace. 

Queen’s Trust had a nearly two-month break going into Ascot, where she finished third in the 1 1/2-mile British Champions Fillies & Mares on Oct. 15, 2016. Reverting in trip three weeks later for the 1 1/4-mile Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1), she inflicted heartbreak on fan favorite Lady Eli Nov. 5 at Santa Anita. 

Modern Games similarly had three weeks to regroup from his runner-up effort in the Queen Elizabeth II, at a rain-affected Ascot, and justify favoritism in a firm-ground Mile at Keeneland on Nov. 5, 2022. 

Kinross, third to Modern Games in that Mile, was himself making a quick reappearance. During a very busy second half of the season for trainer Ralph Beckett, Kinross had just scored in the British Champions Sprint, a mere 13 days after taking the Prix de la Foret (G1) on Arc Day. 

The 2022 British Champions Sprint also factored in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1). Appleby’s Creative Force, who had been third to Kinross at Ascot, was a barnstorming third over a 5 1/2-furlong trip short of his ideal at Keeneland. Stablemate Naval Crown was well beaten in both races, having gone off form at the end of his career. 

Although Gosden has yet to succeed with his Breeders’ Cup hopes wheeling back from British Champions Day, his trio that attempted it demands context. Turf star Roaring Lion, who extended his winning streak to four in the Queen Elizabeth II on Oct. 20, 2018, failed to handle dirt in the Nov. 3 Classic (G1) and eased home in last.

Gosden fielded two chances in the 2020 Turf at Keeneland, staged three weeks after the Ascot festivities. Lord North, a subpar last of 10 in the Champion, was a valiant fourth when stepping up to a 1 1/2-mile distance that was a shade too far for him. Stablemate Mehdaayih, a tiring fourth in the British Champions Fillies & Mares, reported home seventh versus males in the Turf. She ran to the level of her form at the time. 

The 2025 Breeders’ Cup promises to add more data points to this ongoing tale of two championships.