IRISH CHAMPION STAKES
Saturday 9th September, 3:20pm
Auguste Rodin @ 4/7
King Of Steel @ 9/4
Alflaila @ 17/2
Nashwa @ 16/1
view odds
*prices correct at time of writing.
RACE
As the two-day, two-racecourse format of the Irish Champions Festival reaches its tenth birthday, the Royal Bahrain-sponsored-Irish Champion Stakes – one of six races staged at Group One level between Leopardstown and The Curragh over the weekend – continues to hold centre stage.
Amongst the world’s most significant prizes, it has been won by a string of star names including five that went on to success in France’s Prix De L’Arc de Triomphe, staged in Paris a convenient twenty-two days later, most recently Sea The Stars (2009) and Golden Horn (2015). Aidan O’Brien’s record in the mile-and-a-quarter feature is unsurpassed, and once again he is well-represented.
MARKET
2023’s three-year-olds have endured mixed fortunes against their elders but the principal pre-race chat has revolved around two of the best of the year’s Classic generation, O’Brien’s Auguste Rodin and King Of Steel, first and second in the Derby at Epsom. Auguste Rodin subsequently failed to impress when winning the Irish Derby before bombing out in rain-softened conditions (just as he had at Newmarket in the 2000 Guineas) when finishing last in Ascot’s King George, a long way behind King Of Steel (third) and fourth-placed Luxembourg, a fellow Coolmore/Ballydoyle runner and last year’s Leopardstown winner when beating Onesto.
King Of Steel’s form has a pleasingly solid look to it and this reduction in distance should suit. Alflaila and the Frankie Dettori-ridden Onesto are lightly-raced, so will be fresher than some for the autumn, while Nashwa and Al Riffa have been acquitting themselves well against some big players.
CORNELIUS’ QUARTET
The two days are not just about the Champion Stakes, and there is something for everyone with big-race pretentions as Arc weekend, British Champions Day and the Breeders’ Cup loom into sight, and the Dermot Weld-trained Tahiyra seeks to show off her credentials, which might turn out to be – in true Weld style – international in Leopardstown’s Matron Stakes against older rivals.
At The Curragh on Sunday, in the Flying Five Stakes, arch-rivals Highfield Princess and Bradsell both have to smash the remarkable unbeaten record in five visits to Ireland of Art Power; Coolmore’s champion stayer Kyprios is back from an absence in time for an autumn campaign, and tries to make it seven wins on the bounce in the Irish St Leger; and City Of Troy – trained like Kyprios by Aidan O’Brien – lines up in the National Stakes off the back of a superlative performance in the Superlative Stakes at Newmarket.
WINNER
The Champion Stakes is a big moment for the three-year-olds especially for Auguste Rodin which must bounce back, and may well do so with his trainer’s record, but King Of Steel deserves a major trophy. Onesto could be the dark one.
OTHER BUSINESS
With Godolphin a little quiet, jockey James Doyle has not been as prominent in the news as usual but the brilliant Shaquille, with which he is reunited in the Haydock Sprint, and York heroine Warm (Prix Vermeille, Paris Longchamp), present him with the possibility of a headline-grabbing Group One double.
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