'The best horse won' - Jim Crowley executes an astonishing success on a Champions Day of redemption

Cometh the day, cometh the champions, until cometh the Champion Stakes, when something extraordinary happened.

This was an afternoon that was handsomely meeting its raison d'etre. Kyprios and Charyn had confirmed themselves to be true champions of their divisions, readily justifying favouritism with the sort of authority Kalpana delivered in her brilliant breakthrough performance. The ground might have been gruelling but the cream was rising to the top, as it then did in the Qipco-backed Champion Stakes. It's just that on this occasion the cream was sent off at 40-1.

That is very much the opinion of Jim Crowley, who savoured a wonderful rush of adrenaline as Anmaat came from an utterly impossible position to claim a contest that two years ago dealt the jockey and the entire Shadwell team a crushing blow. Baaeed was supposed to win but did not. Anmaat was supposed to finish third or fourth at best but instead emerged victorious after finishing with a sail that was not so much wet as completely saturated and dripping on the Ascot turf.