AIDAN O’BRIEN and John Gosden are readying their heavyweights for a £4million blockbuster showdown at Ascot on Saturday.
One of the biggest paydays of the year will see the two training titans go head-to-head at the Royal racetrack.
Delacroix was simply electric in winning the Irish Champion Stakes ahead of his decider against Ombudsman at Ascot on Champions DaySportsfile
The TimesWilliam Buick celebrates landing the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on Ombudsman at Royal Ascot[/caption]
And they are throwing two of their biggest names into the mix for a mouthwatering decider in the feature Champion Stakes – already being dubbed the ‘race of the season’.
Gosden’s Ombudsman and O’Brien’s Delacroix are 1-1 in their clashes this season.
The Irish raider displayed a jaw-dropping turn of foot to nut Ombudsman on the line in an awesome Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July.
But Gosden’s stable star – one of them at least – reversed the form in the Juddmonte International at York the following month.
Delacroix – or Del Boy as he is known – added the Irish Champion Stakes to his CV after that and it looked like he would then be retired to stud.
Templegate’s big race verdict
By Steve Mullen
I’M really not surprised to see Ombudsman and Delacroix so close in the Champion Stakes betting.
After all, it’s one-all in meetings between the pair with Delacroix coming out on top in the Coral-Eclipse before Ombudsman bit back with a convincing success in the Juddmonte International at York in August.
Those contests were both over the 1m2f Champion Stakes trip and came on good or faster ground which is forecast for the weekend.
Delacroix never looked himself at York and went back to his beloved Leopardstown last month to land a gutsy Irish Champion Stakes ahead of Anmaat.
A repeat of that would take him very close again this weekend but Ombudsman clocked his personal best at Ascot when winning the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at the Royal meeting.
That’s what I think just gives him the edge over the Aidan O’Brien challenger.
But don’t think this is a two-horse race. Although dropping back from 1m4f isn’t perfect, Calandagan is high-class and goes on any ground. He can make his presence felt.
Don’t forget Almaqam got the better of a rusty Ombudsman in the Brigadier Gerard at Sandown in May and ran well at Longchamp last time. The issue with him will be the ground as he needs some juice.
Ombudsman is definitely the right favourite and it should be a cracker.
But it’s now all systems go for this brute of a horse, one of five O’Brien runners entered in the £1.3m showstopper.
Gosden, who is aided in training by son Thady, has added Devil’s Advocate into the field – at a fee of £75,000 – to be pacemaker.
Bidding to throw a spanner in the works and smash them all is French raider Calandagan for Arc de Triomphe-winning trainer Francis-Henri Graffard.
Ombudsman is the 7-4 fav while Delacroix, who was 13-2 for the race a week ago, is now as short as 5-2.
But that contest – off at 4.05pm – is just one of seven on the day, with a brand new two-year-old race kicking things off at 12.55pm.
The Gosdens and O’Brien could have their first head-to-head there with the father-son duo entering May Angel and the Cheveley Park Stud-owned Siren Suit.
O’Brien – who is also trying to smash his own record of 28 Group 1s in a year – has entered Middle Park Stakes runner-up Brussels among his four.
The Long Distance Cup (1.30) looks for the taking for the Gosdens courtesy of Gold Cup winner and 4-7 fav Trawlerman.
But O’Brien has supplemented 4-1 second-fav Stay True, who could run alongside pacemaker Saratoga.
The Champions Sprint Stakes looks wide open and O’Brien doesn’t have a runner there while the Gosdens have only entered 66-1 outsider Spy Chief.
Things hot up again in the Fillies & Mares Stakes.
Worth more than £300,000 to the winner, the Gosdens have confirmed 12-1 Danielle while O’Brien will rely on 25-1 Ballet Slippers and Bedtime Story, plus possibly 100-1 Island Hopping.
Field Of Gold, one of the horses of the year, is 13-8 favourite for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at 3.25pm.
O’Brien’s The Lion In Winter, a one-time favourite for the Derby, has plummeted from 33-1 to 12s after he was among Monday’s confirmations.
The Gosdens look set to also run 50-1 Carl Spackler in search of the £650,000 first-place prize.
While O’Brien could also rely on 33-1 Exactly or 50-1 January.
Delacroix and Ombudsman will then look to settle their rivalry once and for all in what bookies are labelling a ‘mouthwatering’ clash.
Before the Balmoral handicap closes an awesome card.
With no rain forecast the ground could be among the firmest seen for a decade at Ascot on Champions Day.
Fast and fiery – it has all the makings of an instant classic.
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