Champions Day at Newmarket

Newmarket´s final day´s racing of 2009 is also its best - Champions Day, featuring two Group One races, four more Group races and the Cesarewitch, one of the season´s hottest and most difficult handicaps. Only Longchamp on Arc day offers a better card. Main event is indisputably the Champion Stakes over 10 furlongs at 16.00 CET, which has attracted its usual strong field, headed by two of this season´s classic winners Fame and Glory (Irish Derby) (Aidan O´Brien/ Johnny Murtagh) and Sariska (Oaks and Irish Oaks) (Michael Bell/ Kieren Fallon). They are also the two highest rated and the likely favourites, but we have slight reservations about both, especially on this fast ground. Fame and Glory had the bad luck to be born the same year as Sea the Stars, otherwise he would be the champion, but as it is he has had a hard time of it and his rather lacklustre performance in the Arc suggests he has possibly had enough for this year. Our each-way selection therefore is Mawatheeq (Mar cus Tregoning/Richard Hills), who is relatively lightly-raced and still improving. French runners have a good record here, so we are afraid of Alpine Rose (Alain de Royer-Dupré/ Christophe Soumillon) and especially Never on Sunday (Jean-Claude Rouget/ Christophe Lemaire), while it would be no surprise to see Twice Over (Henry Cecil/ Tom Queally), runner-up last year, to figure prominently once more.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Main Aim - Ashram - Arabian Gleam
2. Race: Chabal - Steinbeck - Silver Grecian
3. Race: Fame And Glory - Sariska - Mawatheeq
4. Race: Darley Sun - Swingkeel - Electrolyser
5. Race: Tabassum - Distinctive - Atasari
6. Race: Crystal Capella - High Heeled - Ave
7. Race: Akmal - Blue Bajan - Urban Poet