'How can you win five races and not pay your training fees? That's a joke'

Something is playing on the mind of Sheikh Fahad Al Thani as he settles down in his Newmarket office to reflect on Champions Day's tenth birthday. It isn't long before his lament comes to the fore, where it stays for much of the discussion.

"We'll talk about Champions Day first but then we must talk about the prize-money situation in Britain," he says, offering a taste of what's to come. "It has to be addressed, otherwise the authorities will wake up one day and find that half the horses have left."

In that event Champions Day would be nothing like the annual gathering it is today. Despite a troubled gestation, the project has consistently attracted top-class horses across the card, and whatever the merits of staging the day towards the end of October, it has established itself as the end-of-season jamboree British racing has always lacked.