VICTORY for Magical in the Qipco Champion Stakes this afternoon would be the latest chapter in a storied season for the Galileo mare. The decision to postpone her date with No Nay Never has already reaped rich dividends.

She quickly added a Pretty Polly Stakes and a(nother) Tattersalls Gold Cup to her burgeoning CV early in the season. Then, after chasing home Ghaiyyath in the Juddmonte International at York in August, Aidan O’Brien’s mare exacted her revenge on the Godolphin horse in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, in what proved to be one of the most enthralling duels of the season so far.