Found Seeks to Build on Success in Champion

After breaking a string of runner-up finishes in most spectacular fashion, Found will try for a second straight group I win against males Oct. 15, when she faces up to 18 rivals in the $1,586,000 QIPCO Champion Stakes (Eng-I) at Ascot.

While Found also was entered in the QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (Eng-I) on the undercard, Racing Post reported Oct. 12 that trainer Aidan O'Brien has opted to start Found in the open, 1 1/4-mile Champion Stakes and 3-year-old Seventh Heaven in the 1 1/2-mile Fillies & Mares. 

Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier's Found enters Saturday's race off a clear victory in the Oct. 2 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-I) going about 1 1/2 miles at Chantilly. The 1 3/4-length score over stablemate Highland Reel, who also is entered in the Champion Stakes, proved a big payoff in a season that previously had been marked by near-misses.

LEWYN: Found Leads 1-2-3 Arc Finish for O'Brien

In a five-race stretch this season, Found finished second five times. Each of those five races in England and Ireland was at the group I level, and four saw the 4-year-old filly take on males.

On Saturday Ryan Moore will get the mount as Found tries to add another memorable win in a career that also includes a victory in last year's Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT) at Keeneland. Last year Found finished second in the Champion Stakes to Fascinating Rock, who also is back, before scoring a clear victory over Golden Horn in the Breeders' Cup Turf.

Newtown Anner Stud Farm's Fascinating Rock will be making his first start since he finished second in a group III test Aug. 21 at the Curragh. In May at the Curragh, the 5-year-old son of Fastnet Rock added a group I win at the 1 1/4-mile distance in the Tattersalls Gold Cup (Ire-I), where he defeated Found.

U.S. fans also are plenty familiar with Tabor, Smith, and Magnier's country-hopping Highland Reel, who won last year's Secretariat Stakes (gr. IT) at Arlington International Racecourse before closing out the year with a third-place finish in the William Hill Cox Plate (Aus-I) and a victory in the Longines Hong Kong Vase (HK-I). The 4-year-old son of Galileo has earned group I wins or placings on four continents.

The field, of course, is loaded with talented runners. Some of the other accomplished runners include: last year's Irish Derby (Ire-I) winner Jack Hobbs, this year's Prince of Wales's Stakes (Eng-I) winner My Dream Boat, a pair of horses who swept the Prix du Jockey Club (Fr-I) and Irish Champion Stakes (Ire-I) in their 3-year-old seasons in The Grey Gatsby (2014) and Almanzor (2016), and this year's Coral-Eclipse (Eng-I) winner Hawkbill, who was bred in Kentucky by Helen K. Groves Revokable Trust.

The day's other group I races include the aforementioned Fillies & Mares Stakes, where Irish classic winner Seventh Heaven will face Simple Verse, who will try for a second straight win in the 1 1/2-mile test. 

• The day's first group I race is the QIPCO Champions Sprint Stakes (Eng-I),  where Limato will try for a second straight group I victory after scoring by three lengths in the QATAR Prix de la Foret (Fr-I) on the Arc undercard at Chantilly. Mecca's Angel (IRE), a 5-year-old Dark Angel mare who topped Limato in August in the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes (Eng-I), to win that race a second straight year, awaits.

• Also on the card is the QIPCO Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Eng-I), where O'Brien, who already has claimed 20 grade I or group I wins this season, will send 3-year-old filly Minding. The six-time group I winner and two-time English classic winner will face males 3-year-olds and older in the one-mile test. The field includes this year's QIPCO Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-II) winner Galileo Gold.