SIR HENRY CECIL wouldn’t want to go into battle in the QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot with any horses other than his evergreen duo Twice Over and Midday.

Twice Over grabbed the last two renewals of the Group One when it was run at Newmarket while Midday has finished first or second in every race she has run in over the past two years. The two Prince Khalid Abdullah-owned horses have won 10 Group Ones between them. And the pair fought out the finish in the Juddmonte International at York in August – the race sponsored by his highness.

Both horses are around the 8-1 mark to upset favourite So You Think with Cecil’s stable jockey Tom Queally staying loyal to Midday, with Ian Mongan back on Twice Over, as he was when he won at York.

Cecil said: “Both horses are very well and I am delighted with them. They have been trained for the race.

“This is always the best time of the year for Twice Over and he is better than ever - he is jumping out of his skin. Midday is also better in the second half of the season.

“Both horses are entitled to run and they could both beat each other. Midday can get lazy when she is in front.

“At York , she got left in front early when the Aidan O’Brien horse (Await The Dawn) dropped back.

“Both are really coming into themselves and are not there to make up the field. I wouldn’t want to pick any other horse in the field. I have my two horses and they are my friends.”

O’Brien’s So You Think is the favourite after finishing fourth in the Arc two weeks ago, but just in front of him that day was Ed Dunlop’s Snow Fairy.

Dunlop said: “Obviously, it is a concern that the race comes up only 13 days after the Arc, but she has taken her exertions in Paris better than we could have hoped and she looked in great form when she worked up the Al Bahathri under Adrian McCarthy on Wednesday morning.”

TODAY’S NAP: Daneking (4.10pm Haydock).