All the Grade 1 favorites fizzled on Future Champions Day at Newmarket, with Ivawood’s second-place finish in the Middle Park Stakes the top showing from any of the best-fancied 2-year-olds in action Friday.

Ivawood, an odds-on favorite, dropped a close photo to 22-1 outsider Charming Thought in the Middle Park. Favored Estidkhaar made little impression in the Dewhurst Stakes, checking in fourth as Belardo scored an impressive victory, and in the Fillies Mile, race favorite Lucida checked in fifth as Together Forever won by a half-length.

Kingman, retired last month before completing his 3-year-old campaign, was expected to be the star of the QIPCO Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Saturday at Ascot, and in his absence, the QE II could showcase the only horse ever to beat Kingman, Night of Thunder.

Night of Thunder handed Kingman a neck loss in the English 2000 Guineas this past spring, and he can follow in the footsteps of his stablemate Olympic Glory by winning the QE II, the last major one-mile race of the European season.

The damage is done. Days of rain have left Ascot Racecourse with soft to heavy conditions in advance of Saturday’s QIPCO British Champions Day.

That could play in the favor of surface specialists for the day’s two seven-figure Group 1 races – the Champions Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes – and three other Group 1 or Group 2 races on the program.

Since Richard Hannon Jr. operates the leading 2-year-old outfit in England, it should come as no surprise that his stable is well represented Friday at Newmarket on Future Champions Day, the juvenile appetizer to Saturday’s QIPCO Champions Day at Ascot.

Hannon trains Ivawood, the favorite for the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, and Estidhkaar, the favorite for the Group 1 Dewhurst. He also has a second horse, Kool Kompany, for the Middle Park and the filly Marsh Hawk in the Group 1 Fillies Mile.

Freddy Head’s name has been associated with great milers throughout his decorated career as both jockey and trainer, and the Frenchman is hoping to shine with yet another specialist at the eight-furlong distance this weekend.

With a proven record on soft ground, the Head-trained Charm Spirit has been popular with horseplayers this week ahead of Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, part of the lucrative QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot.

This is the season, Breeders’ Cup time, when European horses and their human connections begin traveling across the Atlantic to the United States. Through the summer and fall, even before the Breeders’ Cup, a west-flowing pipeline, funneling European runners to lucrative stakes in North America, stays open, but that pipeline tends to flow in just one direction. The number of Europeans racing in North America dwarfs that of North Americans venturing east across the Atlantic to race.

Lucia Valentina, a two-time stakes winner in Australia in the last six weeks, and Bande, a stakes winner from Japan, are two leading contenders in Saturday’s $2,634,000 Caulfield Cup at Caulfield Racecourse, a race that could provide vital clues for the Melbourne Cup next month.

The Group 1 Caulfield Cup is run over 1 1/2 miles and will have a maximum field of 18 starters. The race drew a full field, with four horses on the also-eligible list.

David O’Meara has made a huge breakthrough at the highest level this year, and the 37-year-old trainer is aiming to add further polish with two solid contenders at this weekend’s QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot.

O’Meara runs Custom Cut in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and G Force in the QIPCO British Champions Sprint Stakes.

The French veteran Cirrus des Aigles, Europe’s all-time leading money earner, heads to Ascot with a favorite’s chance of winning the QIPCO Champion Stakes once again.

With one of his potentially key rivals for Saturday’s race, Epsom Derby winner Australia, now retired, and the wet weather another aid, the 8-year-old has become a solid first choice ahead of lightly raced Irish 3-year-old Free Eagle.

One of just 24 horses trained at Chantilly outside Paris by Corine Barande-Barbe, Cirrus des Aigles is one of the most remarkable stories of recent seasons.

It surprised many when Treve bounced back into top form and won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 5, becoming the first repeat Arc winner since Alleged in 1977-1978. But the real surprise came Saturday, when news reports out of Great Britain revealed that the 4-year-old filly would not, as previously had been announced, be retired to life as a broodmare. Instead, her connections said Treve will race again as a 5-year-old in 2015, her goal a third straight victory in the Arc.