BUSY weekend ahead, on all sides of the Irish Sea and all sides of the English Channel and under all codes.

The BetMGM Challenge Cup at Ascot today is a little different to the full-field charge that you usually get for these big seven-furlong handicaps at Ascot, it doesn’t have the full 25 or 26 or 27-runner field that the Buckingham Palace or the Victoria Handicap gets, simply because the course is narrowed and the field is limited to 18 with one eye on British Champions Day in two weeks’ time.

It’s still not easy mind you.

Qirat is talented and progressive and proven at the track. Ralph Beckett’s horse ran well in the Britannia Handicap at the Royal Meeting over a mile, and he probably put up a career-best performance when he won a seven-furlong handicap at Goodwood last time on easy ground, when he kept on well to get the better of Witness Stand, who enhanced the form of that race when he beat English Oak – more of whom anon – in the Listed Dubai Duty Free Cup at Newbury next time.

Incidentally, Qirat is a half-brother to Bluestocking, they are both out of Dermot Weld’s top-class filly Emulous, the Matron Stakes winner.

It could be a big weekend for the Juddmonte family.

Qirat is one of four three-year-olds in the race, and the four of them occupy four of the top five places in the market.

Between them, they take out around 50% of the market, and that may be too much in a race in which the classic generation do not have a great record.

Fresh is highest in the market of the older horses, and James Fanshawe’s horse is an Ascot old hand at this stage.

His four wins on turf have all been at Ascot, and he goes well on soft ground, and this seven-furlong trip probably suits him even better than the six furlongs over which he won at the course four weeks ago.

A 2lb hike takes him up to a mark of 95, which is still 7lb lower than the mark off which he won at Ascot two years ago.

Value of the race

That said, at a bigger price, Akkadian Thunder could be the value of the race.

David O’Meara’s horse ran better than the bare form of the run suggests over today’s course and distance four weeks ago.

His draw in stall one, on the far side, was not an advantage on the day, a day on which the horses who raced close to the stands rail appeared to be at an advantage. Obviously cognisant of that fact, Billy Garrity took Akkadian Thunder across in behind runners early on so that he could race close to the stands rail.

It meant that he was well back in the field though, in a race in which the winner Grey’s Monument made just about all the running, and in which the horse who led the group that raced a little way away from the stands rail, Run Boy Run, finished third. Akkadian Thunder did best by far of the hold-up horses.

Winner of a seven-furlong handicap on the all-weather at Newcastle on his second run for David O’Meara, the Night Of Thunder gelding won at Doncaster in July off a mark of 88, and a 2lb hike for his latest run at Ascot was not harsh. He has raced just 10 times in his life, and there should be more to come.

He goes well on soft ground, and he proved last time that he could operate at Ascot. And his hold-up style of racing should be well suited to the track.

Bengough Stakes

English Oak is also proven at the track, and he looks over-priced in the Group 3 Bengough Stakes earlier in the day.

Ed Walker’s horse has raced at Ascot twice, and he has run really well on both occasions.

He was only just beaten in the six-furlong handicap at this meeting last year, going down by a neck to Rohaan.

Then, he ran out an impressive winner of the Buckingham Palace Handicap over seven furlongs at the Royal meeting in June.

He hasn’t won since then, but he has been knocking on the door.

He only gave best to a progressive horse in Witness Stand a listed race at Newbury last time (see above) over seven furlongs, when he finished clear of the rest.

The return to Ascot could elicit at least a little bit of improvement, and he is interesting dropping back down to six furlongs now for the first time in 12 months, on soft ground and back at a stiff track. And he will have Jamie Spencer for company.

Arc de Triomphe

Tomorrow’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is fascinating, but the Japanese horse Shin Emperor still looks overpriced.

Yoshito Yahagi’s horse ran a massive race in the Irish Champion Stakes three weeks ago.

He didn’t have a lot of racing room two furlongs out, but he finished off his race really well once in the clear to get to within a length of the winner Economics.

That was his first run since he finished a staying-on third in the Japanese Derby over a mile and a half at Tokyo at the end of May, so it would be surprising if he didn’t improve significantly for the run.

His trainer is top class, both domestically and internationally.

He trained Contrail to win the Japanese Triple Crown in 2020 and, in 2021, he became the first Japanese trainer to win a Breeders’ Cup race, and he won two on the same day.

Also, you have to think that the Arc has always been Shin Emperor’s primary target, that the Irish Champion Stakes would have been a nice bonus but, in reality, it was a stepping stone.

A full-brother to Sottsass, who finished fourth in the Irish Champion Stakes in 2020 before going on and winning the Arc three weeks later, the Siyouni colt should be much happier over a mile and a half at Longchamp than he was over 10 furlongs at Leopardstown.

Recommended:

English Oak, 3.00 Ascot, 5/1 (generally), 1 point win

Akkadian Thunder, 3.35 Ascot, 12/1 (generally), 1 point each-way

Shin Emperor, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, 13/2 (generally), 1 point win