MyCatMeatball pounces on the line to snatch first prize in Tote Ten to Follow

The drama of Champions Day will have been keenly felt in the households of the two leading protagonists in the Tote Ten to Follow Flat competition which reached its conclusion at Ascot on Saturday.

Going into the final day, Robert Winchcole held eight of the first ten slots on the leaderboard, including the first two places. However, scratching annoyingly at his heels was the team of MyCatMeatball 24, which had pulled itself into a challenging position thanks to the victory of Lead Artist in the Darley Stakes the previous week, a result which yielded 20.30 points.

Both the main players – and more than 70% of all teams – collected 22.93 points from Kyprios in the opening Long Distance Cup and with Sprint winner Kind Of Blue not included in the competition and only 0.4% of players reaping the benefit of the 30.94 points contributed by Kalpana in the Fillies & Mares, it was soon clear that the last two Group 1 races of the day, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Champion Stakes would settle the destination of first prize.

Winchcole had the formidable trio of Economics, Calandagan and Los Angeles in the Champion, while MyCatMeatball was without Calandagan but did have Charyn in the QEII.

As we all now know, Charyn cruised through much of the race and surged again when challenged by Facteur Cheval, while Calandagan could not cope with the finish of Anmaat – who scored a mighty 98.65 points – in the Champion.

The 53.78 points from Charyn’s success took MyCatMeatball on to 955.54 for the season, while Calandagan’s 13.30 points for finishing second meant that was also where Winchcole’s main team finished, just 2.56 points behind the winner after a battle over four and a half months.

The Rectory Pole team that had been the competition’s longtime leader, rallied on the last day thanks to Charyn and Kyprios and finished an honourable fifth.

They may all be back to take each other on again through the winter as entries for the jumps competition open on Wednesday.

THE FINAL STANDINGS

TOP-SCORING HORSES
1 City Of Troy 53.2% of teams 161.46 points
2 Kyprios 70.1% 158.61
3 Charyn 18.4% 139.22
4 Bluestocking 14.9% 131.45
5 Anmaat 1.4% 116.48
6 Porta Fortuna 9% 112.41
7 Bradsell 3.6% 103.50
8 Jan Brueghel 6.8% 91.42
9 Goliath 2.9% 85.30
10 Los Angeles 41.8% 82.80

TOP TEAMS
1 MyCatMeatball 24 955.54 points
2 Robert Winchcole -11 15 952.98
3 Robert Winchcole 11 941.82
4 Robert Winchcole 9 931.32
5 Rectory Pole 2 922.81
6 Robert Winchcole 17 920.83
7 Robert Winchcole 10 915.52
8 Robert Winchcole -11 6 903.71
9 Robert Winchcole: 1 876.85
10 Robert Winchcole 11 24 873.68

WINNING TEAM - MyCatMeatball 24 955.54 points
City Of Troy 161.46 points
Kyprios 158.61
Charyn 139.22
Bluestocking 89.50
Bradsell 86.90
Los Angeles 82.80
Economics 77.90
Notable Speech 55.65
Lead Artist 43.90
Rubies Are Red 0.00

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