"In its current slot, Champions Day is deliberately set up to discourage the proper exploration of a champion's limits." (Discussion of moving event to September, other changes.)

"As time goes on we will get horses competing from abroad. British horses can still go for the Breeders Cup if they want to but the races we want are on dirt there, so why fly turf horses all the way over to America? To win at Ascot on Champions Day, value-wise, will be much more."

"Santa Anita's decision to return to dirt means the only cheering from outside the States is from officials at Ascot and Longchamp. They have to compete with the Breeders' Cup to attract top-class runners for the respectively revamped Champions Day and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe meetings.... The American Thoroughbred appears to be in decline -- and while everyone in their industry fears it, they would sooner bury their heads in the dirt than do something more sensible about it."

"Mid October was very much Plan B, and while there are over-riding concerns over whether or not the top horses will run at Ascot in preference to going to France or America, we hope to play our part. Next year, the Breeders' Cup will be run on a conventional dirt surface and with over £1million in prize money, we hope most of the good 10-furlong horses will stay at home and run at Ascot."

"Anyway, those alarmed by the way things are going will permit themselves a certain bleak satisfaction should the Dewhurst live up to its billing, because it couldn't happen another time. It may yet be, of course, that some apparent no-hoper barges through and beats them all. And that, if we're not careful, is just the kind of disobliging behaviour that might some day drive these marketing cadets away from thoroughbreds -- and then where would we find the dimensionless froth to tempt all these lovely young ABC1s?"

"A growing importance of horse racing in other parts of the world as opposed to the growth of the sport here is what most likely will constitute 'The New Normal.' But the Breeders’ Cup remains clearly the standard which all nations emulate."

"It will be staged at Ascot on 15 Oct 2011, with a six-race card that officials hope can be built into an extravaganza to rival the Breeders' Cup and Arc day." It's about "branding," of course. Also includes British Champion Series, a familiar sounding faux scheme for "newcomers."