Bethell ready to roll the dice with Coedana on Champions Day

Ed Bethell is ready to run recent Newmarket winner Coedana in the Qatar Racing British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot on Saturday week, as she attempts to fill the Group One void left by the Middleham handler’s recently-retired Group One star Regional.

Coedana has put together a fine book of form since stepping up in class this term and having run with real credit in her first Group One assignment in Germany, notched a second success of the season when seeing off Classic-placed Inis Mor to land the Princess Royal Stakes.

Despite that, she is set to head to British Champions Day available at 25-1 for a race where the betting is led by dual winner Kalpana and could feature others to run on Arc weekend such as Prix de Royallieu second Sunly, Oaks winner Thundering On and Aidan O’Brien’s Minnie Hauk.

Bethell said: “It was always the plan that we would roll on to Champions Day and the Princess Royal was very much a stepping stone for that race.

“I was hoping a few of the fillies that went to France would have had a bit more of a dust up, but it looks like they are all going to reappear which slightly worries me.

“We’re very happy with our filly though and she’s steadily progressive and fingers crossed she can run well.”

It will be only a second appearance at the highest level for Coedana, but she has already proven up to that challenge when beaten just three and a a quarter lengths in Munich’s Grosser Dallmayr-Preis – Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in July, a race won by Jessica Harrington’s subsequent Irish Champion Stakes scorer Hotazhell.

“I think all us English went to Germany thinking we could pick up some Group One black type and the race has turned out to be ridiculously strong,” explained Bethell.

“But Hotazhell and Wimbledon Hawkeye (third) have done very well since and Timeforshowcasing (second) ran very well in both a Romanet and Prix de l’Opera. It was a strong performance, I think.”

Bethell also played a wholesome tribute to Regional, the speedster who provided the trainer with his first Group One success when landing Haydock’s Sprint Cup in 2023 and bows out having agonisingly fallen short of the perfect swansong in Ascot’s Rous Stakes.

“We have been incredibly fortunate with him and I’m forever in his debt ultimately,” said Bethell of the five-time winner, who twice placed in the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot and also made the podium in the Al Quoz Sprint on Dubai World Cup night last year.

“We always thought it would be nice to end on a high and he came close. He clearly wasn’t showing the same level of form as when he won the Sprint Cup and as we all know the older we get the slower we become. For all he showed he still has plenty of tenacity, we thought it was only fair for him to bow out and enjoy a nice retirement.

“He’s been an amazing horse and we are all truly grateful to have been a part of his journey.”