Good afternoon from Ascot, where the rain that has been falling fairly persistently for much of the last 12 hours is – hopefully – starting to ease ahead of Britain’s most valuable afternoon at the races: Qipco Champions Day, with £4.1m and four Group One races up for grabs.

The track updated its expectations to a 29,000 crowd on Friday evening, not far short of the attendance to see Frankie Dettori draw the curtain on his British career 12 months ago. A wet start to the day was the last thing anyone wanted, as it may well put at least a slight dent in the “walk-up” ticket sales, but anyone within easy reach of the track who is at a loose end should be aware that there are even occasional patches of blue sky appearing over Berkshire at present.

As was the case last year, the action in the three events on the round course will unfold on the tight inner track due to concerns over the going. It’s not a great look for a day designed to celebrate the summer code that it has ended up on Ascot’s hurdles track for three of the last six years, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone too much 12 months ago and the field sizes are unusually strong, so hopefully not many spectators will notice that the runners are a little further away than ideal.

The Champion Stakes, with £1.3m in the pot, is the feature at 3.55, and the overnight rain seems to be behind a distinct move in favour of Francis-Henri Graffard’s Calandagan, who has form on soft ground and also stays 12 furlongs, in the betting this morning. The King Edward VII Stakes winner is now top-priced at around 13-8, with his fellow three-year-old, Economics, the Irish Champion Stakes winner, as big as 9-4.

Charyn, another winner at the Royal meeting in June, also heads the market at around 13-8 in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on the straight mile at 3.15, while the emerging talent Kalpana is the likely favourite for the Fillies’ & Mares’ and it is anyone’s guess which of the runners will set off as the punters’ pick for the 16-strong Sprint.

You can follow all the action as it happens here on our live blog from the first race to the last (the only handicap on the card, at 4.35) and we are underway on the track at 1.20, when the dual Gold Cup winner, Kyprios, will attempt to get favourite-backers off and running at odds-on in the Long Distance Cup.