Ombudsman and Delacroix head Champion Stakes field

The trilogy of the Ombudsman and Delacroix rivalry will take place at Ascot on Saturday after both were declared for a mouthwatering Qipco Champion Stakes.

The former will be returning to the scene of his dazzling Prince of Wales’s Stakes triumph at Royal Ascot and has since struck gold in the Juddmonte International, where he levelled the score with Delacroix after Aidan O’Brien’s star son of Dubawi flew home late to deny John and Thady Gosden’s four-year-old in the Coral-Eclipse.

Delacroix has since produced a spellbinding display to add to his own Group One haul on home soil in the Irish Champion Stakes and will now bid to become only the seventh horse to complete the Anglo-Irish Champion Stakes double.

The Gosden operation have also declared Devil’s Advocate, who was added to the field on Monday to undertake pacemaking duties for Ombudsman, while similar comments apply to Delacroix’s stablemate Mount Kilimanjaro, who is also amongst the cast of 11.

There is proven quality right through the field, with Francis-Henri Graffard’s Calandagan returning to the scene of his King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes triumph and bidding to go one better than his second to Anmaat in this contest 12 months ago.

The French team will also be represented by Andre Fabre’s supplemented Prix Dollar scorer First Look.

Economics will make a belated first appearance since finishing sixth as a 2-1 shot for this race 12 months ago, while Ed Walker bypassed the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with his stable star Almaqam in favour of taking in this contest.

Andrew Balding will saddle both the improving Almeric, who is fresh from a stylish victory at Ayr, and Fox Legacy, who was equally impressive in a conditions event during the Qatar Goodwood Festival.

The line-up is completed by Dylan Cunha’s Prague, who tries 10 furlongs for the first time since the first two starts of his career.