England: Powerful Glory ($251.40), Cicero’s Gift ($181.20) notch upsets at Ascot
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The payoffs were astonishing.
On one of the biggest days of the British flat season, Cicero’s Gift ($181.20 in American pools) won Saturday’s Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes for milers at Ascot a little more than an hour after Powerful Glory ($251.40) won the Group 1 British Champions Sprint Stakes.
There were more logical payoffs on the program, too. Kalpana ($4.70) obliged as favorite in the Group 1 British Champions Filly and Mare Stakes, and Trawlerman ($3) won as expected in the Group 1 British Champions Long Distance Stakes.
Cicero’s Gift, ridden by Jason Watson for Charlie Hills, rallied from the back of a field of 16 to take the lead in the final furlong of the $1.56 million Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, run on a straightaway course.
Cicero’s Gift finished 1 1/4 lengths in front of 17-1 The Lion in Winter, who was a neck ahead of 34-1 Alakazi. The $1 trifecta returned $25,199.70. Field of Gold, the 3-2 favorite, finished fifth by 2 3/4 lengths.
Cicero’s Gift, who paid 100-1 with British bookmakers, is a 5-year-old British-bred gelding by Muhaarar who has won 6 of 15 starts. Saturday’s surprise win was Cicero’s Gift's first in a group stakes and was preceded by a win in the minor Fortune Stakes at Sandown Park on Sept. 17.
Kalpana, seventh in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in Paris on Oct. 5, won for the first time this year in her sixth start in the $713,600 Filly and Mare Stakes, a race she won at the end of her 2024 season.
Ridden by Colin Keane, Kalpana was always near the front in Saturday’s race at 1 1/4 miles and won by a convincing 2 1/2 lengths over 4-1 Estrange in a field of 10.
“Kalpana has had a frustrating season, but looked right back to her best there,” trainer Andrew Balding said. “Things haven’t quite gone how we wanted them to this year, but that was a pretty good performance.”
Quisisana (6-1) finished third.
Kalpana, a 4-year-old British-bred filly by the Deep Impact stallion Study of Man, has won 6 of 14 starts.
The $755,600 British Champions Sprint Stakes appeared to be an open race, with Lazzat the 9-2 favorite as of Thursday. Lazzat was the 8-5 favorite at post time, while Powerful Glory was the second-longest shot in American pools in a field of 19.
Powerful Glory, ridden by Jamie Spencer, rallied from off the pace in the six-furlong race on a straightaway course to finish a neck in front of Lazzat. Quinault (70-1) finished third. The $1 trifecta paid $22,504.50.
The British Champion Stakes was Powerful Glory’s third win in his fifth start for trainer Richard Fahey, and his first start in a Group 1. A 3-year-old Irish-bred colt by the Exceed and Excel stallion Cotai Glory, Powerful Glory was last of five by 3 1/2 lengths in a five-furlong allowance race at Beverley Racecourse in Northern England on Sept. 23.
Powerful Glory, who won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes as a 2-year-old in 2024, was 200-1 with bookmakers on Saturday. He missed a scheduled start in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup for sprinters at Royal Ascot in June with a breathing issue, Fahey said.
Fahey said the race at Beverley was designed as a prep and to give Powerful Glory a confidence-booster after a breathing operation.
The seven-race program started predictably with Trawlerman beating four rivals in the $713,600 Long Distance Cup at about two miles. Trawlerman, who was ridden by William Buick for John and Thady Gosden, won by 1 1/2 lengths over Sweet William in a field of five. Sweet William is trained by the Gosdens.
Trawlerman, a 7-year-old gelding by Golden Horn, has won his last four starts, including the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup at 2 1/2 miles in June.
Mission Central ($15.40) won the newly created $335,800 2-Year-Old Condition Stakes at six furlongs in what trainer Aidan O’Brien described as a prep for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at five furlongs at Del Mar on Oct. 31.
Mission Central, ridden by Christophe Soumillon, finished a half-length in front of Ardisia in the field of 11.
Mission Central, an Irish-bred gelding by No Nay Never, has won 3 of 5 starts.
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