Does proven ability on soft make much difference? Keith Melrose tests the force driving the Champion Stakes market

When people talked a couple of weeks ago about an Arc that was lacking, they were thinking of three main absentees. They were City Of Troy, Economics and Calandagan. The Champion Stakes has attracted two of them, albeit for very different reasons.

This race maps better than the Arc from the Irish Champion Stakes, which Economics won. It is also less of a searching test and does not have the Arc's rough-housing effects. As for Calandagan, he would surely have run in the Arc had the race conditions not excluded geldings.

Plenty of others are here for similar reasons to Economics or Calandagan. King's Gambit, See The Fire, Royal Rhyme, Anmaat and Nashwa were never likely to tackle a mile and a half. Iresine might well have gone to Longchamp if he were still an entire. That is two-thirds of the field and half of the remaining exceptions, Continuous and Los Angeles, ran in the Arc.