BIG Rock was the one horse at Ascot who quickened the pulse in terms of performance. Sure, King Of Steel’s win in the Champion Stakes was a real edge-of-the seat moment and will be remembered for its drama as well as its obvious place in history, but from a form perspective, it was arguably no better than he’d achieved in defeat in the Derby or the Irish Champion Stakes.

The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes was the strongest race on the card in terms of the achievements of those who lined up, and while a couple of the multiple Group 1 winners in the field shaped as if over the top for the season, there is little doubt that the winner emerged as a true champion, and one we can look forward to seeing plenty more of.

There are a couple of provisos to append to Big Rock’s six-length success, the first being the fact that it looked a distinct advantage to be on the front end on both the straight and round course at Ascot, so making the running was clearly not “doing it the hard way” for Christopher Head’s three-year-old colt. Connections also mentioned how much Big Rock loved the soft ground, and conditions are likely to be important for him in future, but those qualifiers aside, his performance was every bit as good as it looked.

Impressed

Big Rock impressed physically prior to the race, but even more so when sent about his work, with Aurelien Lemaitre taking charge of the contest with a series of fast splits on a day where the rain-sodden ground was sapping stamina. He was faster than every one of his rivals in each of the first four furlongs according to Longines’ sectionals, and only Checkandchallenge, making a forward move from the rear to challenge for the places, could match him in furlong five.

Tahiyra gamely attempted to bridge the gap, and did so slightly as she moved into second place with a quarter of a mile to run, but Big Rock was marginally faster than her again in each of the last two furlongs, and while the front pair were slowing to some extent on the uphill run to the line, the others were stopping quicker, with the exception of Facteur Cheval, who produced the fastest final quarter mile, albeit appearing to be ridden to maximum advantage by Mickael Barzalona to do so.

It has been mentioned elsewhere that Big Rock ran a faster time for the first six furlongs than Art Power did when winning the British Champions Sprint. Such comparisons are often misleading, and so is this one, with the stiff finish at Ascot making the six furlongs of the earlier race more of a test than the first three-quarters of the QEII.

The pair raced in a remarkably similar manner, breaking well from the stalls and immediately getting into a strong tempo which they maintained until rising ground and physics intervened in the latter stages. Both Big Rock and Art Power ran their fastest sectionals through the second, third and fourth furlongs of their respective contests. Art Power was slightly faster in each of those, so the idea that Big Rock could be a champion sprinter needs taking with a pinch of salt, but that is missing the main point.

While Big Rock was slower than the sprinters, analysis of his time must take into account that he was spreading his speed over eight, rather than six furlongs, so a direct comparison of individual splits is fraught with danger. Timeform gave him the best compliment with a Timefigure of 131, the highest ever achieved on Champions Day at Ascot, and the best anywhere in 2022, which puts his brilliance in the proper context.

The son of Rock Of Gibraltar has twice gone very close to winning a Group 1 on quick turf, so is clearly a top-class performer whatever the conditions, but he’s clearly a monster when the ground is yielding and that fact was hammered home again when Horizon Dore ran so well to be third in the Champion Stakes.

On soft ground at Chantilly in May the pair met in the Prix Guiche, with Big Rock eased some way from the line to beat Horizon Dore by five lengths before he patently failed to stay the extra yardage when beaten by Ace Impact in the Prix du Jockey Club.

It became clear after Saturday’s race that both trainer and owner are keen to keep Big Rock in training, and given how well suited he seems to be by a stiff mile, it would make sense if he were to be aimed at races like the Lockinge and the Queen Anne in the first half of the season. He is something to look forward to over the cold winter months, for sure.

IT was Dettori’s day on Saturday, and it must be said that while there have been mixed reactions to the nature of his farewell tour, he was at his mercurial best on both Trawlerman and King Of Steel, and the latter win in particular did plenty to ensure that the day got the right headlines.

Make no mistake, Saturday’s card was saved by the Dettori story, as without those media-friendly results, there would have been much more focus on the fact that Champions Day remains a flawed concept flogged to within an inch of its life by the promoters, but increasingly looking in need of a rethink.

Champions Day is billed as a raceday on which champions are crowned, but year in, year out, the best horses do not win the feature races, and that must go down as a massive issue for an event which is billed as the culmination of the British flat season.

The bald fact about Saturday’s results is that none of the winners of the five principal races had ever won in Group 1 company before, while the 13 individual Group 1 winners who lined up all failed on the day. On an individual level, that makes for great stories, and no-one would begrudge Art Power his win in the British Champions Sprint, for example, but a meeting built purely on prestige cannot survive when the prestige horses are either not turning up or leaving the track with their tails between their legs.

Ascot - or more accurately Great British Racing - can’t expect Dettori to ride to the rescue next year (God forbid), and beneath all the adulation, there were clear signs of resentment among other players, with the pantomime of introducing the jockeys for the Champion Stakes individually never sitting comfortably, but especially awkward this year. The excruciating embarrassment showing on the faces of Ryan Moore et al as they emerged to script was matched only by the virtual silence from around the parade ring as they went through the rigmarole. The fact that a big cheer was reserved for Dettori alone as he came out merely reinforced the disjointed feeling.

It’s true that the Champion Stakes wasn’t always a stellar contest when run at Newmarket, and I don’t want to lead a charge to send it back.

The problem, rather, is that trying to invent a single day when the season reaches its crescendo simply doesn’t work because the only real international focal point of the season is Royal Ascot.

Trying to recreate that on a squelchy October day feels like trying to rediscover your youth by going to a school reunion in your forties, hoping you can find that spark you’ve lost. And you know how that one ends.