The first European races of the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In are staged at Royal Ascot this week.
Beginning on Tuesday [June 18], Britain’s premier week of racing includes four Group stakes that provide guaranteed starts to the Breeders’ Cup.
The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series is an international series of 82 stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the Breeders’ Cup, scheduled to be held Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar.
The opening day of the five-day meeting includes the G1 Queen Anne Stakes over a mile, which serves as an automatic qualifier for the $2m FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile, and the King Charles III Stakes, a G1 event over five furlongs, offering a free entry into the $1m Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
On Wednesday, an automatic starting position into the $5m Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf will be on the line in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, and on Thursday, the Norfolk Stakes for two-year-olds will give the winner a free berth into the $1m Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Queen Anne: France assembles strong team
Tuesday’s opener, the Queen Anne Stakes, has been won by French-trained horses twice in the last 15 years – by three-time Breeders’ Cup Mile Champion Goldikova (IRE) in 2010 and by Solow (GB) in 2015.
This year’s edition features two leading French contenders. Team Valor International and Gary Barber’s Facteur Cheval was placed in four G1s in 2023, then managed to win the Dubai Turf at Meydan in March by a head, beating a quality field on his first start of the year.
Speaking to the British Champions Series, Marseille trainer Jerome Reynier said: “Facteur Cheval came back from Dubai in really good shape. He knows Ascot’s straight mile, having run so well there behind Big Rock in October, and although the ground conditions probably won’t be the same we saw him doing really well on good ground in Dubai, and that form is amazing. He’s ticking many boxes and can go to Royal Ascot with many hopes.”
Owner Barry Irwin, CEO of Team Valor, is already looking t the future. “After Ascot, I think we will focus on international races on a round course,” he said.
“He trained great on the dirt over in Meydan and I think we will try him on that also. A mile and a quarter on dirt is something we will take a good look at. We haven’t planned anything yet after Ascot, but every option is open.”
French compatriot Big Rock won the Qipco Queen Elizabeth II Stakes by six lengths at Ascot in October for trainer Christopher Head, then moved to new stables over the winter. He is now trained by Maurizio Guarnieri and will be partnered with Christophe Soumillon for the first time.
With BC winner Inspiral re-routed to the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, surprise Lockinge Stakes winner Audience does the honours for Cheveley Park Stud and the John & Thady Gosden training partnership.
Robert Havlin retains the ride on Audience, who belied his role as an apparent pacemaker for Inspiral with a front-running success in Newbury’s G1 event.
Lockinge runner-up Charyn reopposes with trainer Roger Varian hpeful of turning the tables. “He is very complete now – he’s a big, strong horse and very uncomplicated,” said Varian, speaking to the British Champions Series media team.
“You could say that at Doncaster and Sandown he didn’t perform any better than he had done at his peak as a three-year-old, when he was bumping into Paddington fairly regularly, but I think his Lockinge run tells you he’s a better horse this year.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Audience, who is a good horse in his own right, but he raced on his own and Charyn destroyed the others, which included some jolly nice ones. For me that was a career-best and marked him out as a genuine Group 1 horse.
“I don’t think he could be any better. He’s thriving at the moment. His condition since the Lockinge has been good and his work in the last fortnight has been very on point.
“It will be slightly different ground by the look of it and there are some nice French horses he hasn’t seen before but I couldn’t be more pleased with him.”
King Charles III: Breeders’ C winner Big Evs is the headline act
Big Evs was a runaway winner at Royal Ascot last year in the Windsor Castle Stakes before going on to capture the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita in November.
Now three, he returned with a stylish victory in a minor contest at York last month and will bid to win his first domestic G1 in the King Charles III Stakes – better known in its former guise as the King’s Stand Stakes.
Trainer Mick Appleby is hopeful Big Evs has improved from last year, saying: "He's not grown much but he's filled out a lot. He's like a bull now and Tom [Marquand, jockey] said he's as good as he was in California, if not better.
“From two to three you just never know, but he showed the signs at home that he's still got it, and he showed us that on the track too at York.
“He’s up against older horses and it’s a competitive race obviously, with Regional probably the one I fear most, but Big Evs hasn’t lost any speed and I didn’t doubt that he would train on. He could have waited for the Commonwealth Cup on Friday, but this five furlongs is his trip really.”
This is often an international affair, and this year is no different with Australian trainer Henry Dwyer saddling Asfoora, who warmed up for Ascot with an encouraging fourth in the G2 Temple Stakes.
“In her right conditions, I think she can win a Group 1,” said Dwyer. “I think at her peak, which she will be at Ascot and beyond, she is well and truly up to it. Ascot will be a challenge for her but she will run really well.”
Last year’s Queen Mary Stakes winner Crimson Advocate returns to Royal Ascot for new connections in owners Wathnan Racing and co-trainers John & Thady Gosden.
She shipped over only days ago and Wathnan’s US representative Case Clay said: “It’s exciting to bring Crimson Advocate back to Ascot, and she’s staying over because there are more important five-furlong races here than at home through the summer and fall.
“She won really at Gulfstream last month, and that was exactly what George wanted from her as a tune-up for Ascot. I then saw her at Keeneland when she had her last breeze before travelling and she looked great.”
Betfair Sprint Cup winner Regional is a leading British hope for young trainer Ed Bethell, having returned to action in G2 company the Curragh when finishing second to the reopposing Mitbaahy.
• As part of the benefits of the Challenge Series, Breeders’ Cup will pay the entry fees for the winner of Queen Anne Stakes to start in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile, and the winner of the King Charles III Stakes to start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Breeders’ Cup will also provide a travel allowance for all starters based outside of North America to compete in the World Championships.
The Challenge winner must be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program by the pre-entry deadline of Oct 21 to receive the rewards.
• Visit the Breeders’ Cup Challenge webpage, the Qipco British Champions Series website and the Royal Ascot website
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