Denis Egan, the chief executive of Ireland’s Turf Club, said on Thursday that the unexpected decision to bring forward the off-time of Saturday’s Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown by 65 minutes had been taken “to ensure that the best horses get the best ground”, and not to persuade the connections of leading contenders to run.
The move may not be enough to prevent high-profile withdrawals from the Group One event, however, with as much as 25mm of rain expected at the course on Friday. Aidan O’Brien, the trainer of the 2,000 Guineas winner, Gleneagles, has already said he would like to see “good ground or better” for his colt, while John Gosden, whose Golden Horn is expected to start favourite, said on Thursday that he will walk the course before deciding whether to let the Derby winner take his chance.
The Irish Champion Stakes was originally due to start at 6.50pm, as the seventh race on an eight-race card, but will now set off at 5.45pm. The switch has also had a knock-on effect at Doncaster, where Frankie Dettori had been booked to ride Bondi Beach, one of the favourites, in the Ladbrokes St Leger at 3.45pm. Dettori, the country’s best-known jockey, can no longer reach Leopardstown in time to ride Golden Horn, and Bondi Beach will now be ridden by William Buick.
“They could get up to 25mm of rain,” Egan said, “and that is a serious amount to fall between now and Saturday. There are two tracks in operation at Leopardstown, the inside track that they are running the first four races on and the outer track which they are running the last four on. The Champion is on the outer track and it was supposed to be the second-last race but, in view of the forecast, it will now be run as the fifth race, which will be the first race on the outer track. That will ensure that the best horses get the best ground.
“If they do get 25mm of rain, they will be running on fresh ground, which will be heavy. If they left the race where it was, horses would be running on churned-up ground. I don’t think anyone would thank us if the race was run as the seventh race and the ground was in bits after having handicappers churning it up.”
Egan conceded that the situation was “unfortunate” for Doncaster, where a crowd of around 30,000 is expected to watch the sport’s oldest Classic.
“I suppose the fact that the Leger and the Champion Stakes clash on the same day is also unfortunate,” Egan said. “If that didn’t happen, we wouldn’t have the problem, but it is going to affect some UK-based riders that want to ride in both races.
“I suppose the only solution is to have two different days but I’m talking as a regulator making that statement, not as a promoter.
Gleneagles was ruled out of the International Stakes at York in August a few hours before the race when the going was officially good-to-soft, so heavy ground would almost certainly see him ruled out of the Champion Stakes, regardless of its position on the card. Golden Horn, meanwhile, was scratched from the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in July when the ground changed from good-to-firm to heavy in 24 hours, and surrendered his unbeaten record to the 50-1 outsider Arabian Queen in the International Stakes.
“We will have to go on rain-watch in Ireland,” Gosden said here on Thursday after saddling Gretchen to win the feature event, the Group Two Park Hill Stakes. “I can understand what they are doing because the fresh ground has been kept for this race. I think they’d love to hold Gleneagles in the race, so let’s hope that what is forecast doesn’t come.
“It wasn’t our fault in the King George, we got an inch-and-a-half of rain in the 18 hours before the King George and I was right not to run him there over that trip. We go to Ireland and I’d very much like to run. If it’s good or good-to-soft ground, we will run. If it goes very, very soft, I’ll probably walk the track about three times and make a decision.
“We’re very keen to run. Otherwise you can wind up with these horses, Gleneagles last ran at Royal Ascot and suddenly it’s the autumn and they haven’t run again, and that’s very frustrating.”
The ground at Leopardstown is currently riding fast ahead of the forecast heavy rain.
“It’s fast ground at the moment,” Nessa Joyce, Leopardstown’s racing and operations manager, said on Thursday. “On the outside track it’s good to firm, firm in places. We are looking at another dry day today so it might tighten up another bit, so we are well prepared if there is rain coming.
“At the moment we believe it will rain overnight on Friday and stop at 3am on Saturday morning, which gives Saturday a dry and bright day.”
Gosden has already won more than £4m in prize money in the 2015 trainers’ championship, a one-horse race in which none of his rivals has yet reached £3m, and added another £50,000 to his total when Gretchen edged home ahead of Melodious.
The trainer went on to complete a double when California took the card’s fillies’ handicap, while Roger Varian, successful in last year’s St Leger with Kingston Hill, saddled the 25-1 outsider Realtra to take the Group Three Sceptre Stakes by two-and-a-quarter lengths. She caused interference to several rivals in the process, though, resulting in an eight-day ban for Jack Mitchell, her jockey.
“You never come to the races thinking they are going to win as she won today,” Varian said. “However, for me, I would have been disappointed if she hadn’t finished in the first four. I thought she was overpriced on the form of her Listed win [last time out] and she was only stepping up one notch.”
At Epsom, the three-time champion jockey Richard Hughes saddled his first runner as a trainer when Castle Talbot lined up for a handicap over an extended mile, but the gelding could finish only fourth behind Italian Beauty.
“He ran the way I thought he would run, and that suits me just fine,” Hughes said. “I was hoping for soft ground, as he was on his head turning in. If I’d known the ground would be like that, I would have run him in the second-last race on the card [over a mile and a quarter] as he needs a trip on that ground.”
