Horse racing has always claimed to be the Sport of Kings, but more recently market research has established that today the turf is in fact the domain of 'Brian'. This "dull, out of touch, slightly confused and one-dimensional" character emerged in a report two years ago commissioned by Racing for Change, a body set up by the sport to look at ways of modernising it and attracting the kind of major corporate sponsorship enjoyed by the likes of Formula One, football, rugby, tennis and other mainstream sports. The verdict from surveying the general public was that racing was in danger of becoming relevant only to this dull character type, rather than the much younger 'Ben', who is "a bit edgy, cool and fresh, well read, intelligent, multilingual, self assured, well groomed, smart casual...." In other words, an ad man's dream.

Fast forward two years and racing's solution to this conundrum can be found in the Ben-friendly QIPCO British Champions Series and Champions Day. The latter, to be held at Ascot in the middle of next month, is a new race day that aims to provide a finale to the British summer of flat racing, bringing together the very best mares, fillies and colts that have raced nationwide, and beyond, since April over a range of distances.

"It will be a big day towards the end of the British flat racing season that will make the whole year more exciting," enthuses the Duke of Devonshire, Her Majesty's Representative at Ascot until this summer, when he stepped down after more than a decade overseeing proceedings at the Queen's racecourse.

Champions Day on 15 October will be the culmination of the Champions Series, Racing for Change's effort to brand 35 established races throughout  the summer into five categories: Spring, Mile, Middle Distance, Long Distance, and Fillies & Mares. Ascot will host the five final legs of these categories and will honour the series' most successful jockey and trainer. Furthermore, Champions Day will carry record prize money of £3m, bolstered by the sponsorship of the Qatar company, QIPCO (Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Co.).

The day aims to showcase the best racing has to offer in a form that is intelligible to those not schooled in the sometimes arcane ways of the turf. According to Rod Street, Racing for Change's chief executive, racing is in danger of losing any relevance to the wider public and being marginalised in the betting market. So is racing on the edge of a cliff? "Certainly we are not on a precipice with a sheer drop," he says. "More at the top of a hill, with a gentle downward slope to the bottom ahead of us."

But the racing world is far from unanimous on whether this new initiative will prevent the downward trend. "Champions Day will be a Matterhorn peak amid Sahara-like desert," maintains John Livingstone-Learmonth, who last year launched Horseracing Deserves Better as a mouthpiece for opposition to the Champions concept.

Opponents such as Livingstone-Learmonth maintain that the Champions Series simply piggybacks longstanding events that are decades old and messes with racing's heritage, which is traditionally a strong selling point for the sport. For example, to facilitate Champions Day, the Champion Stakes, first run in 1877, has been moved from Newmarket, the headquarters of British flat racing, to Ascot. There is also the gamble, weather-wise, of staging the sport's showcase day in October when, in addition, Liverpool vs Manchester United amid a full Premier League schedule is an alternative attraction.

Racing's stakeholders, an alphabet soup of federations and associations, such as the NTF (racehorse trainers), RCA (racecourses), TBA (breeders) and BHA (the sport's regulatory body, previously known as HRA and BHB), have long struggled to speak with one voice. On Champions Day and Series opinions have been many and vociferous since plans were unveiled last September. Jim McGrath, a much-respected director of the British Horseracing Authority, resigned in protest on the grounds that he was "angry and concerned". Frankie Dettori, a Champions Series 'ambassador'—and to many the face of British racing—believes the initiative is a "fantastic development" that will create a "real buzz". Only the views of the horses themselves have remained uncanvassed.

There is certainly a fascination for the concept of pitting leading horses against each other. The late Paul Mellon, of the distinguished American banking family, was warned by his father, "Any fool knows that one horse can run faster than another." Nevertheless, devotees of the sport endlessly ponder, as Mellon did, the merits of, say, Mill Reef, whom he bred and raced to win the Epsom Derby in 1971, and the likes of Pour Moi, successful in the same race this June.

When champions are separated by generations, there is the respective form to study, which can help rank those who never raced together by margins down to just a horse's nose. But best of all is when those who aspire to champion status do meet, head on. The thrill of this moment is what Racing for Change seeks to tap.

It also seeks to address the long-standing concern that the summer's flat racing season lacks a coherent narrative. The Champions Series and Champions Day together aim to engage both high-end spectators and a broader audience in just such a story, according to Rod Street, Racing for Change chief executive. "In flat racing, there was no natural end to the season, no punctuation mark. What we have created is sign posting for a bigger audience with a finale when you will see top-class racing and racehorses."

The hope is also, of course, for fresh revenue streams for media rights and added sponsorship, especially from brands without any previous racing associations, such as, Street points out, QIPCO. "Racing has fantastic assets, the sport just has to use them better," he emphasises. "We are putting them all together, maximising their worth to racing in an iconic event."

Livingstone-Learmonth, however, remains unimpressed with the Champions Series, which he considers "an additional layer of complication" to an already complex sport. "Champions Day, the Champions Series," he reflects. "It is a bit like an ambitious ghost. We know the races that make up the series but no one really knows what the series is as a whole."

Sheikh Fahad bin Abdullah al Thani, one of six Qatari brothers behind QIPCO and an owner/breeder with over 40 horses in training, maintains that the company's sponsorship of the Champions Series and Champions Day, along with the bookmakers William Hill, is an ideal corporate platform. His elder brother, Sheikh Hamad, QIPCO chief executive, adds: "This is perfect for us to reach a wider audience."

For his part, Livingstone-Learmonth is underwhelmed by boasts that QIPCO, an investment vehicle that includes an extensive racing and bloodstock division, represents a fresh injection of cash from outside the sport. "The sponsors are not new to racing," he points out, asking where are the likes of Marks & Spencer.

"Horse racing has a well-established calendar that ensures continuity," Livingstone-Learmonth maintains. "The Champions Series has a knock-on effect to other races in the year disturbing that. To expect ABC1 males new to racing to turn their attentions to the sport on a Saturday afternoon in October is further madness. At Ascot, which already provides the peak of the summer in the Royal Meeting, it will most likely be damp, dark and dingy, so hardly a triumphant pageant for all that's best about British flat racing. Champions Day is a wannabe occasion sandwiched between established international racing events such as the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at the beginning of October, Breeders' Cup day in America at the month's end and the Japan Cup in November."

The 35-race Champions Series passed its halfway point on 8 July with the July Cup at Newmarket. For 'Brian', that meant a six-furlong sprint first run in 1876 and won by a distinguished roll call of thoroughbreds. For 'Ben', it meant Champions Series Race 18. At this stage, the Champions Series Twitter feed was being followed by just 460 individuals&mdash-fewer than the more than 500 threads that the Champions Series was itself following. An official Facebook page had only 1,125 'friends', one of whom appeared to be a red teddy bear called Archie. If the Racing for Change initiative is going to improve dramatically the sport's landscape then this will have to be as a result of the impact from Champions Day.

John Berry would probably walk from Newmarket to Ascot if that meant he would saddle a runner next month at Ascot. As a relatively small, stalwart trainer, he won't expect to be represented on Champions Day. But Berry's greater concern is that potentially disappointing fields in October will mean that resources directed towards the top-end initiative will be wasted when needed by professionals like him across the board.

"The problem is that horses do not stay at their peak indefinitely," he maintains. "If a horse is trained to be at a peak in October, the same horse will not be at a peak through the summer. If Champions Day is to be the big day of the year then it will weaken the months before when, unsurprisingly considering the weather, flat racing stages its big, highly successful carnivals at courses such as York, Newmarket and Goodwood."

Berry believes that the existing programme of summer racing works well founded in the sport's strongest selling points, namely heritage and tradition. Flat racehorses use the showcase days to exhibit their talents, which can sustain a long and lucrative career at stud. Indeed, for the very best colts, such as Frankel, winner of, among other races, the 2000 Guineas in May and the Sussex Stakes in July and the current generation's outstanding candidate for wonder horse status, stud earnings of many millions should dwarf any prize money from the track. Such considerations are what determine the path horses take through the summer, not the prospect of an end-of-season windfall at Ascot, Berry explains.

Anyone in racing knows you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, yet Bruce Millington, editor of the Racing Post, the sport's daily trade newspaper, is unconvinced that the Champions Series has helped him deliver an editorial narrative to guide new converts through the summer, generating a new, enthused and committed audience for Ascot in October. But he believes that Champions Day itself should at least help with circulation. "It's a big step forward," Millington says. On the wider issue of increasing racing's reach and general popularity, he is unequivocal. "Racing's only hope of attracting a fresh influx of racegoers is to make them aware of the considerable delights of the race day experience and then to encourage them to sample the unique challenge racing provides as an intriguing betting medium."

Charles Barnett, chief executive at Ascot, is hopeful that a crowd approaching 30,000 will be tempted by Champions Day. In many ways, Ascot is already on to a winner. Champions Day is an additional highlight in the venue's already high-quality programme, bringing extra television coverage, additional revenue streams and further national and international prestige. At the same time as gaining a race of the Champion Stakes' calibre, the course has taken a chance with a crown jewel, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, usually run in September but now scheduled for Champions Day—but potentially too late for Frankel, who might otherwise have been expected to run ahead of his career at stud. Nevertheless, Barnett is ultimately measured in his assessment of the day. "Royal Ascot will always be our most important event," he insists.

The Duke of Devonshire isn't hedging any bets. "Champions Day this year is an afternoon racing enthusiasts know they cannot miss," he insists. Those behind the Champions Day and Champions Series certainly need a full grandstand. Appropriately, they are also gambling on the horses delivering.