Champions Day and $1 million race options for Economics - with William Haggas stable star staying in training next year

Economics could be targeted at the $1 million Bahrain International Trophy in November before returning to race as a five-year-old after being absent this year.

Trained by William Haggas, Economics has not raced since finishing sixth in last year’s Qipco Champion Stakes, after which he was found to have bled.

The Bahrain International Trophy is the highlight of the racing season in Bahrain, where Economics’s owner Sheikh Isa Salman Al Khalifa is chairman of the nation’s racing governing body. The race has been won for the past two years by Spirit Dancer, part-owned and bred by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Economics could potentially line up at Ascot on October 18, according to Jake Warren, principal adviser to Sheikh Isa. But targets in the Middle East during the winter, including the Bahrain International Trophy on November 14, are also high on the agenda for Economics before he returns to race in Europe in 2026.

Warren said: “We plan to keep Economics in training as a five-year-old, which we're very excited about, and we also plan to campaign him in the Middle East this winter. 

“Champions Day and the Bahrain International Trophy are the two possible races for him on the horizon, but nothing is confirmed at this stage.”

William Haggas: trainer of EconomicsCredit: Edward Whitaker

Economics emerged as one of the most exciting horses in training in Britain last year, with wins in the Dante Stakes, Prix Guillaume d’Ornano and Irish Champion Stakes, a race sponsored by Sheikh Isa.

The colt had been building up to a return to action in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, but was forced to miss the contest after damaging a muscle in a racecourse gallop at Newbury.

Despite having raced not since October 2024, Economics remains the joint-third highest rated Flat horse in training in Britain on 123, with only Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner and Coral-Eclipse second Ombudsman (127) and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Field Of Gold (126) above him in the BHA rankings.

Qipco Champion Stakes (Ascot, October 18)
Coral: 4 Ombudsman, 5 Calandagan, 6 Delacroix, 8 Anmaat, 10 Economics, Whirl, 12 Minnie Hauk, 14 Almaqam, Goliath, Lambourn, See The Fire, 16 bar.

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