Calandagan (15/8) atoned for his narrow defeat in last year’s G1 QIPCO Champion Stakes as he stormed to a two-and-a-quarter-length success over market rival Ombudsman in a brilliant 2025 edition of the 10-furlong showpiece.
The market principals were held up a long way off a strong gallop but it was Calandagan and Mickael Barzalona who showed the best change of gear as the cream rose to the top in the home straight.
Ombudsman (13/8F), the highest-rated horse in the world, threw down a strong challenge alongside Calandagan approaching the final furlong but could not go with the winner late on. Almaqam (28/1), who beat Ombudsman at Sandown Park earlier in the season, edged out Delacroix for third.
Calandagan has shone twice at Ascot this year for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard and the Aga Khan Studs, having produced another top-class effort to defeat Kalpana and Rebel’s Romance in July’s King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
The gelded son of Gleneagles becomes the fourth French-trained winner of the QIPCO Champion Stakes since it moved to Ascot, following Cirrus des Aigles (2011), Almanzor (2016) and Sealiway (2021).
Graffard, who also trains Arc winner Daryz, said: “Calandagan is a fantastic horse. The way he was working coming into this race was just incredible. He loves this track, and we know him very well. When he took his stride in the straight, it was just so beautiful to watch. Ombudsman was trying to challenge him, but Calandagan is a very good horse.
“I kept him fresh. We haven’t been very greedy with him by trying to run him too much – and the horse gives back to us now. He is a real star. We love horse racing and today was a beautiful horse race to watch.
“I think Calandagan is a real champion. Work is so easy for him, but he needs to work. I was quite far from the Champion Stakes, but I had to put him in a gallop with Daryz before Arc weekend because I needed him to be fitter for today. He was looking at Daryz like this [glances to the side and smiles] ‘come with me, I’ll show you how it works’. It was unbelievable but looking back now it was a gallop with an Arc winner and a Champion Stakes winner.”
Asked whether the horse is better this year, he said: “He is maturing and strengthening. Before it was hard to put him in the stalls, now it is not a problem. Everything is going the right way. I was very stressed before the race, because I was expecting more tactics and it was difficult to read the racing from the beginning of the afternoon, so I was very stressed about that, but it worked out well and it’s easier when you have a champion.”
On taking on Daryz, Graffard said: “No, not really. There is also a business side of horse racing and a horse like Daryz is very important for the Aga Khan family. For me it’s important to travel and to be seen that we can be competitive all over the world, so I’m glad there are other options for Calandagan – he can be a famous horse. I don’t know where we are going to go next. I was thinking the Japan Cup but that’s a tough race to win, so we will talk to Princess Zahra and see what she wants to do.”
Barzalona said: “Calandagan was a bit far back early on, and we were on different ground today, but when he found his action, he got ready to go. I could feel Ombudsman coming to me but I was, fortunately, much quicker than him. I think Calandagan is a very good horse and he deserves this.
“I haven’t really been able to understand the power of these [Aga Khan] colours. Someone said they are followed by everyone and I think that is true because there is such joy when they see these colours go across the line. I am very proud to be part of the team.”
Princess Zahra Aga Khan said: “Calandagan is a very good horse and really coming into his own now. As the jockey said, once he had his space, he was unstoppable. It was great to see. We can keep on racing him, within reason. There is always a risk within that and we want to be careful, but he can go international.”
Ombudsman’s co-trainer John Gosden said: “Ombudsman has run a wonderful race. He did get slightly shuffled back to last and he has tried to come from last. Take nothing away from the winner, and it was a fabulous race between two very good horses. They quickened up well – we have come from last and Calandagan has come from back there, although not quite as far back.
“It is a great win for Princess Zahra and I’m thrilled for them. There were no hiding places, the pacemakers set a proper pace and our pacemaker was only collared with a furlong and a half to go. Full marks to the winner. We were coming from behind him and that was tough from last.”
On Field Of Gold’s fifth in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO), he said: “With Field of Gold, it was very much on the wing of the field with that high draw, which I didn’t much like. That played a little bit against him but he has run a lovely race. He is simply short of match practice – he hasn’t run since the end of July and was just in need of the race in truth.
“I wouldn’t think we would necessarily want to be going running round two bends at Del Mar. You can see he’s a big, long-striding horse. He has been brilliant in two races this season and then it all unravelled and went pear-shaped at Goodwood, but he’s run a solid race here. I think if we could have squeezed a race in that would have been good, but of course after Goodwood we have had to wait until we had him just how we wanted him. There’s no decision on next season yet, we’ll just have to wait and see what everyone would like to do.”
Ombudsman’s jockey William Buick said: “Ombudsman has had some season and ran a super race. We probably had a slightly awkward draw. We had a very good pace to run at and there was Delacroix, Calandagan and myself keeping tabs on each other.
“The pace was solid throughout and it was always going to be between myself and Calandagan. I took the race to him and, in the last furlong, he just pulled away. His stamina probably kicked in, being a King George winner, but I’m very proud of Ombudsman – he ran a super race and he’s a high-class horse. He started pretty early, he won the Prince Of Wales’s here in June and here we are in October, so he’s had a long season.”
Ed Walker said of Almaqam: “Very, very proud of him. The toughest Group One for decades. They’re all tough, but everyone turned up for that. To be fair, I would have taken third or fourth beforehand. You come here to win, you want to win, but Kieran [Shoemark] gave him an absolute peach of a ride. We had a good draw, he did everything right, the horse did us proud, he battled all the way to the line and was beaten by two exceptional horses. He will stay in training.”
Christophe Soumillon said of Delacroix said: “We had a great race. The winner and the second were just behind us the whole way. The pace was on. He never really travelled like he did last time, especially when I came in the last turn. I tried to take him out a bit to make him sprint, but he never really reacted like he did last time. I don’t know if it’s the ground. We always want to fight for the win in these kinds of races, but he couldn’t do it today.”