Champion by name, champion by nature: Britain’s flat seasonal finale has attracted a truly world-class line-up including Adayar, Mishriff and Palace Pier.

Racing fans around the globe will not want to miss it, and thankfully those in Hong Kong will not have to – as a World Pool event, it will be simulcast live by the Hong Kong Jockey Club on Saturday night.

Those aforementioned stars are three of the highest-rated racehorses in the world and they confirmed their presence on Thursday to set up sensational renewals of both the Group One Champion Stakes and Group One Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. A total of 22 Group One winners, who between them have won 48 top-level races, will take to Ascot across the six events.

Adayar and Mishriff, sitting atop the latest International Federation of Horseracing Authorities ratings on 127 – alongside the retired St Mark’s Basilica – will face off over 2,000m in Britain’s richest race, the Group One Champion Stakes.

Addeybb wins the 2020 QIPCO British Champion Stakes. Photo: Racingfotos.com/GBRI

For globetrotter Mishriff, who became the highest earning European horse of all time with a barnstorming victory in the Group One International Stakes at York Racecourse in August, the race represents a chance to turn the tables on Adayar, who backed up his Derby victory at Epsom Downs in June with a defeat of Mishriff in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes over Ascot’s 2,400m in July. Lest we forget, last year’s Champion Stakes winner Addeybb is also in the mix, adding further sparkle to the hotly anticipated contest.

The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes is not short of wow-factor either, with the 10 runners including an impressive eight Group One winners.

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Multiple top-flight winner Palace Pier, rated 125, will bid to make amends for the sole defeat of his career, which came in last year’s renewal, but will need to be at his best to overturn a progressive Baaeed, who remains unbeaten and saluted in the Group One Prix du Moulin de Longchamp on his last start. The Revenant, the 2020 race winner, and three-time Group One winner Alcohol Free are among those aiming to cause an upset.

Supporting the showpiece contests are a further two Group Ones, a Group Two and Europe’s richest mile handicap. The opening race, the British Champions Long Distance Cup, will see stalwart stayer Stradivarius take another shot at his new nemesis Trueshan just two weeks after being beaten by him in Paris. A full field of 20 are due to go to post in the British Champion Sprint Stakes, while the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes features dual Classic winner Snowfall.

Her Majesty The Queen, pictured here with John Gosden and the Al Thani family, was inducted into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame this week and will be awarded her medal on Saturday. Photo: British Champions Series Limited

As a World Pool event, British Champions Day will generate turnover of around HK$21.5m per race. The variation in global opinion on the star horses on show, combined with the fact that all races feature at least eight runners, will ensure intriguing betting contests for racing fans around the world.

British Champions Day was created in 2011 to bring the curtain down in style on a summer of scintillating action at racing festivals across the country.

A decade on, the day has taken its rightful place among the world’s great racing spectacles, and there is every chance that this year’s glittering cast will produce a vintage renewal that will be remembered for years to come.

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