Plus New £250,000 Two-Year-Old Race
Champions Series to Be Discontinued
Racenews Press Release
QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot will become the first British raceday to stage five Group 1 races following the upgrade of the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup. Prize money for the race will also be increased to £500,000 this year, bringing it into line with the Fillies & Mares and Sprint races.
The day will also feature a new £250,000 race for two-year-olds. The six-furlong conditions race, open to all two-year-olds and to be run without penalties, will open Champions Day, taking the total value of the day to £4.35m in 2025. More details about the new race will be released later in the year.
British Champions Series will cease from this year with the priority of the business being delivery of the day itself, progressing Club 26 – the successful racing club for 18–26-year-olds with over 14,000 members – and the expansion of The Hall of Fame.
The 35 Group 1 and Group 2 races that made up the Series will continue to be promoted through the company’s social media platforms, which have over 1 million followers, one of the largest racing social media audiences in the world.
The existing shareholders will continue to own and oversee the business, with QIPCO British Champions Day continuing to be an industry-owned joint-venture and celebration of the sport.
Rod Street, Chief Executive of British Champions Series Limited (BCSL), the company responsible for QIPCO British Champions Day, said:
“It’s fantastic to now have five Group One races on the day and our thanks go to the BHA for securing the promotion of the Long Distance Cup.
“A valuable two-year-old race has long been an aspiration of ours and our sponsor. We are delighted to have created a new race and one we can develop in the years to come. Our intention is to secure Pattern status for the race as soon as possible and we will be working with the BHA to achieve that.
“The Series was helpful in creating focus on the road that led to QIPCO British Champions Day, especially in the early years, but its profile and purpose have been superseded by two newer assets: Club 26 and The Hall of Fame.
“We are grateful to our sponsor, QIPCO, which has sponsored the Series and day since inception in 2011 and, earlier this year, extended its sponsorship of the day to 2026. Without its multi-million-pound investment, British racing would not have been able to deliver the innovation of British Champions Day, record prize money, nor the significant promotional assets we now possess.”
David Redvers, Qatar Racing’s Manager and spokesperson for the sponsor, said:
“After 15 years of QIPCO’s ground-breaking sponsorship of British Champions Series, it is very gratifying to see that QIPCO British Champions Day continues to evolve and thrive.
“We are proud to see that the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup has been upgraded to Group 1 status, and the introduction of a new £250k British Champions Day juvenile race is a welcome addition and goes further towards making this one of the greatest Championship days in horseracing worldwide.
“Sheikh Fahad and his brothers are also delighted to see the evolution of the Hall of Fame and that Club 26 has rapidly become one of the largest and most successful clubs of its type in horseracing.”
