Until the introduction of British Champions Day at Ascot in 2011, the Champion Stakes had been run at Newmarket, with Springfield winning the inaugural contest in 1877 under Lester Piggott’s great-grandfather, Tom Cannon Sr. Piggott himself won the race on five occasions: Sir Ivor in 1968 and Rodrigo De Triano in 1992 being the most notable of his triumphs.
Tom Jennings’ colt Tristan is the only three-time winner, having remarkably been involved in two dead-heats during his reign between 1882-84.
When the present system of race grading was introduced in 1971, the Champion Stakes was classed as a Group 1 contest.
The great Brigadier Gerard won back-to-back renewals under Joe Mercer in 1971 and 1972 – a feat repeated in 1986 and 1987 by Patrick Biancone’s superb filly, Triptych. Other dual winners include Sir Mark Prescott’s Alborada (1998-99), and the late Sir Henry Cecil’s Twice Over, who won the final two Newmarket runnings in 2009 and 2010.
The legendary Frankel took the honours in 2012, and interestingly his dam, Kind, is the only one to have given birth to two Champion Stakes winners, the other being Noble Mission (2014).