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Baaeed is set to bring the curtain down on his brief but brilliant racing career at Ascot this weekend.
The Sea The Stars colt has rattled off 10 wins on the spin and will go down in the history books as one of the greatest racehorses, with his dad and the mighty Frankel, if he can keep his perfect record intact.
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Paddy Power’s Champion Stakes odds suggest Baaeed will romp to victory but the 1m2f contest represents, arguably, the stiffest test of Baaeed’s credentials as he faces a fresh challenger in the form of last year’s Epsom Derby and King George winner Adayar.
Trainer William Haggas said: “I think it [his perfect record] is terribly important now that we’re nearly there and we’ve got one race to go. Frankel obviously was unbeaten but few are unbeaten in a career at that level so I think it would be sad if he was beaten.”
Baaeed has amassed an incredible £2,622,282 for connections and victory in the Champion Stakes would add a further £737,230 to his prize money total.
Incredibly, Baaeed had yet to step hooves on the track by the time Adayar destroyed the Derby field at Epsom but he made up for lost time by breaking his maiden status at the first time of asking at Leicester in June 2021.
He justified favouritism when following up under a penalty at Newmarket two weeks later before a 4l victory in the Listed Sir Henry Cecil Stakes at the same track the following month.
A further step forward came in the Group 3 Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes at Glorious Goodwood and a maiden Group 1 swiftly followed when crossing the English Channel to land the Prix du Moulin at Longchamp to round off his three-year-old campaign.
Baaeed’s career has since mirrored Frankel’s by scooping the Lockinge Stakes, Queen Anne Stakes and Sussex Stakes before stepping up to 10 furlongs for the Juddmonte International in August.
Questions were posed pre-race about his ability over the longer trip but he crushed those suggestions by demolishing a classy field including Mishriff and Native Trail.
Baaeed starts the Champion Stakes on a mark of 135 – the same as his sire and 5lbs short of Frankel’s final rating of 140.
A new career at stud awaits Baaeed so he’s not completely leaving the game when he flies past the post at Ascot and hopes will, no doubt, be high that he can produce top-class horses.
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