Good going vital to realising Ascot's global ambitions

When British Champions Day was first proposed and put on the calendar for a mid-October slot, critics warned the fixture would be a washout. While the most extreme predictions of biblical deluges have not yet materialised, the prevalence of easy going in recent years has certainly held back organisers' ambitions to establish the fixture as a British rival to the Breeders' Cup and Arc meetings.

In each of the past four years trainers and track officials have spent September and October anxiously watching the skies, hoping for an Indian summer but fearing a monsoon. Apart from the fixture's inaugural running in 2011, when good going dominated, the turf has been good to soft or easier in each of the past four seasons. As a consequence the meeting has struggled to recruit the very cream of the racing world, especially from overseas at what is a congested period in the international calendar.

This was acknowledged yesterday by the BHA's director of international racing Ruth Quinn, who said: "The reality is that this is a competitive market place, so anything we can do to drive further improvement – whether in terms of ground or draw – has to be seen as a positive move."