The history of organised horse racing in Ireland dates back to the early 18th century, the first Irish Derby was run in 1866 and, in all, there are now nearly 2,500 races in the country each year. So it is remarkable to realise that, by one measure at least, Saturday evening’s Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown will be the best race ever staged in Ireland.
There is still an outside chance that a band of rain that passed through Dublin on Friday will have an effect on the field but as things stand 13 horses are due to go to post, including one, Ebediyin, who is there only to set the pace. Of the remaining dozen, no fewer than nine have recorded at least one victory at Group One level, and six of those did so this season.
“We haven’t had nine Group One winners in a single race in Ireland in living memory, so I’m pretty sure that it is unique,” Garry O’Gorman, Ireland’s senior handicapper, said this week. “Since 2005, there would have been an average of about three and a half horses rated 120-plus in this race each year, and an average of just less than four Group One winners. This year there are six horses rated 120-plus and nine Group One winners.
“There were seven Group One winners when Golden Horn won last year, which was well above average, but this is even more unusual. Thirteen runners is a very big field as well, five or six would be more like the average, but it’s not only very strong quantity-wise, it’s also very strong in terms of quality.”
The ratings are not the only numbers that tell the tale. There are proven Group One performers in Saturday’s race on offer at 33-1. Hawkbill, who won a strong renewal of the Eclipse Stakes barely two months ago, is a 16-1 chance, while Highland Reel, who took the King George at Ascot in late July, is available at 12-1.
“It’s like an Arc, it’s a hell of a race,” Charlie Appleby, Hawkbill’s trainer, said. “If I didn’t have a runner, I’d be delighted to just stand in the paddock and watch this lovely bunch of horses all in the same race.
“Our horse has done nothing wrong and he deserves to take his chance, but when you’ve won an Eclipse and you’re 16-1, and there’s the winner of the Prince of Wales Stakes [My Dream Boat] in there at 33-1, you know the strength and depth of the race.”
It will take little more than two minutes for the Irish Champion to weave together strands of Classic form from England, Ireland and France, measure the season’s best three-year‑olds against battle-hardened older horses and give the outstanding filly Minding, the Oaks and 1,000 Guineas winner, her first test against colts.
The Classic winners lining up against her include Harzand, the Derby winner in England and Ireland, and Almanzor, who took the French Derby at Chantilly in early June, the day after Harzand’s victory at Epsom. New Bay and The Grey Gatsby, the French Derby winners in 2015 and 2014 respectively, are also in the field, while Found, who beat Golden Horn, the 2015 Derby winner, in the Breeders’ Cup Turf last November is there as well.
The rain on Friday is not expected to have any significant effect on the ground or the shape of the race. “It’s with us now and we expect it to be here for much of the afternoon before clearing out at around six this evening,” Pat Keogh, Leopardstown’s chief executive, said on Friday. “That’s the end of it and it should be good weather overnight, and 16 degrees tomorrow with a fair bit of sunshine.”
In a normal year, a dual Derby winner would be an almost automatic favourite for Saturday’s race but Minding is currently the narrow market leader at 5-2, with Harzand on offer at 3-1. Almanzor, at 6-1, completes a trio of three-year-olds at the head of the betting and while this is perhaps a race to watch and savour without hoping too earnestly for a particular winner, a dominant performance from one of the Classic generation would certainly delight the purists.
“If these horses were running in a handicap, they would be doing it on very similar terms,” O’Gorman says, “as there’s around six or seven in there who are rated very close together at the moment.
“It isn’t a lap of honour or a two-horse race, it is genuinely very open and some of the superlatives are appropriate, but there is no great horse in there yet. Maybe one will come out of the race on Saturday.
“Minding was the best juvenile filly in Ireland for more than 30 years, but she is still only rated 120. She can’t be blamed for beating the fillies that are around, but this is her chance to jump up and show she is absolutely top-notch.
“Sometimes you can’t put a [very high] rating on a horse because of a lack of opposition. That shouldn’t be a problem on Saturday.”
