Gosden, Cracksman and Roaring Lion make it a Champions Day to remember

Back when Champions Day was launched amid controversy eight years ago detractors of the project warned the autumn date and proximity to other Flat finales would mean it was pre-eminent in name only, destined to prove a washed-out folly rather than a festival of the sport's finest.

Yet at Ascot on Saturday the champions came marching out in all their splendour beneath a brilliant blue sky, the day spearheaded by two exceptional colts, Cracksman and Roaring Lion, and their victorious trainer John Gosden, who was crowned champion of his profession before the day was out despite the campaign having almost two and a half months to run.

It could have been even more glorious for Gosden. He began the day with short-priced favourites in four of the five championship races – one imaginative bookies' PR dubbed them the four horses of the apocalypse – yet while supreme stayer Stradivarius also won, Lah Ti Dar could finish only third in the Fillies & Mares. A mere three winners for the champion trainer on Champions Day, then. "It's not a bad day to have a treble, you know," Gosden said.