Future Champions Day | Contests and Promotions
Saturday, October 7
Future Champions Day on tap at Newmarket
No racing fan can afford to miss Newmarket’s meeting on this second Saturday of October.
Justifiably designated ‘Future Champions Day’, it features two of the most informative two-year-old events of each Flat campaign. They are the £350,000 Group 1 1400m Dubai Dewhurst Stakes, won in recent seasons by brilliant colts such as Frankel and Dawn Approach, and the £170,000 Group 1 1600m Vision.ae Middle Park Stakes. Newmarket’s seven-race card also includes the £80,000 Group 2 1400m Vision.ae Rockfel Stakes, the £100,000 Group 2 1400m Dubai Challenge Stakes and the £160,000 3600m Betfred Cesarewitch, a heritage handicap.
The racing mainly comprises the emerging stars of the sport from the generation of horses aged just two. They are the future, but they are also very much about the here and now, too. Indeed, for some, reputations are made on this day, whereas for others it is a stepping stone to greatness in seasons to come.
First post at Newmarket on TwinSpires is set for 9:05am ET.
Newmarket Champions Day Featured Races
- Future Champions Day Dubai Dewhuirst Stakes (Group 1)
- Vision.ae Middle Park Stakes (Group 1)
- Vision.ae Rockfel Stakes (Group 2)
- Vision.ae Rockfel Stakes (Group 2)
- Betfred Cesarewitch (Heritage Handicap
Handicapping Newmarket Future Champions Day
When is the Newmarket Future Champions Day?
Saturday, October 13
Where is the Newmarket Future Champions Day?
Future Champions Day News
Future Champions Day on tap at Newmarket
The best two-year-old raceday in the world, Future Champions Day, is the glittering highlight of Newmarket's autumn season on Saturday. The card features prize money of more than £1.13 million and six Group races, including two Group 1s, plus one of the season's great handicaps, the Cesarewitch.
Supplicant, last month's Mill Reef Stakes winner, tops a quality field for the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes. The Richard Fahey juvenile will bid to become the third horse in the last seven years to complete the Mill Reef/Middle Park double.
"It is always a difficult decision to supplement," Fahey said, "but he has won a listed and a Group 2 so this was the natural stepping stone.
"Supplicant is a real professional at home, he never overexerts himself, he just does his work and then eats up. His owners, Cheveley Park Stud, like to use Ryan Moore when they can but if Ryan is not available then Tony Hamilton will keep the ride."
One of Supplicant's rivals is likely to be Astaire, winner of the Gimcrack Stakes at York in August.
His trainer, Kevin Ryan, said: "Astaire has been great since the Gimcrack, he has come out of the race very well. All his work has been done, he is very fresh and well and is still looking very well.
"I don't think he has any preference as far as the ground is concerned. You wouldn't have thought that he would have gone through the soft ground at York but he did. And I don't believe that there is any such thing as fast ground at this time of year."
Aidan O'Brien is responsible for eight of the 14 six-day acceptors for the other Group 1 juvenile contest, the Dewhurst Stakes. His octet includes Coventry and Futurity Stakes winner War Command and the unbeaten Great White Eagle.
Godolphin has targeted the race with Champagne Stakes winner Outstrip and the much-vaunted Be Ready, who also won at the St Leger meeting.
Later on the card, Smoky Hill is "definitely well handicapped" according to his trainer, Mikel Delzangles, as he bids to become the first French winner of the Cesarewitch Handicap since Monsieur l'Amiral in 1946.
Run over a stamina-sapping 2 1/4 miles, the Cesarewitch is, with its total prize fund of £250,000, the joint-richest handicap in Europe.
Delzangles enjoyed his first big overseas success on the Rowley Mile three years ago when Makfi landed the Two Thousand Guineas.
"Smoky Hill is definitely well handicapped off a mark of 90 given that he ran so well when fourth in a Group 3 last time out after the weights came out," Delzangles said. "We nearly ran him in the Prix du Cadran (on Arc Day) but this race is worth more and we can always go for the Cadran next year. With over 30 runners he is going to need some luck, but it is always great to race in England."
About the 2013 Newmarket Futures Champions Day
The traditional Champions Meeting at Newmarket was the highest-class day in the British flat racing calendar.
Now there is a new autumnal celebration of horseracing, with the Future Champions' Day, launched in 2011.
The race day is one week earlier than the old Champions Day fixture, but retains the original formula with a card made up of six fantastic Group races - two Group 1's, two Group 2's and two Group 3's - plus the the Betfred Cesarewitch long distance handicap.
It is the introduction to the card of the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, which used to be run during the Cambridgeshire Meeting, and the Group 3 Autumn Stakes, which has been transferred from Ascot, to take their places alongside the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes which has given rise to the concept of "Future Champions Day".
These four races are all two-year-old contests, races in which next season's aspiring champions will look to stake an early claim to greatness.