Irish Champion Stakes – Pattern Racing.Com

Irish Champion Stakes Trophy

Irish Champions Festival is upon us.

Five Group 1’s over two days at Leopardstown and the Curragh, with the feature being the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown today.

There has been a big shake-up in the market overnight. Aidan O’Brien’s Delacroix was the 6/4 favourite yesterday; today, he’s out to 3/1, now the joint favourite with Anmatt.

Ryan Moore is sidelined with a broken leg, and with Wayne Lordan suspended, it is Christophe Smouillon who gets the leg up on the Ballydoyle inmate.

Delacroix has a 50% strike rate from ten runs; his best was the G1 Coral Eclipse at Sandown in July, where he showed a brilliant turn of foot to collar Ombudsman. He can be forgiven for the defeat at York in the International, where Ombudsman reversed the placings; let’s just say, the pace didn’t suit. Let’s hope stablemate Mount Kilimanjaro with Ronan Whelan aboard can set an even pace that benefits all.

Delacroix at Leopardstown last year

Two English come to town.

Owen Burrows Anmatt returns to Ireland. His regular pilot Jim Crowley, is also out having sustained pelvic and leg fractures in a horrible fall at York last Sunday. Chris Hayes has got the call-up. He ran a ½L second to Los Angeles in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup in May. Autumn is his time, he likes a cut in the ground and showed how good he is on a soft surface when beating Calandagan in the G1 Champion Stakes at Ascot last October. He was risked on good to firm ground at Royal Ascot in the G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, running an admirable second to Ombudsman.

The other English challenger is Karl Burke’s Royal Champion, the mount of Clifford Lee. He’s a seven-year-old who’d spent some time down under in Australia. On return to this hemisphere, he won three times from five runs. In his last, he was a very easy winner of the G2 York Stakes in July.

Anmatt at the Curragh in May

It’s great to see Japan’s Shin Emperor return to Leopardstown. Trained by Yoshito Yahagi, he’ll once again be ridden by Ryusei Sakai. He ran really well in this last year; he finished third, beaten 1L, and was a little unlucky not to finish closer. He couldn’t handle the very soft ground in the Arc last year, but bounced back in the G1 Japan Cup when he was just held a neck by Do Deuce. He followed that up by winning the G2 Neom Turf Cup at Riyadh in February. At Meydan in April in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic, he wasn’t himself, sweating up badly; he didn’t settle, finishing a well-beaten seventh.

Shin Emperor at Leopardstown last year

John Joe Murphy’s White Birch, the mount of Dylan Browne McMonagle, went down a neck to Los Angeles in the G2 Mooresbridge Stakes in early May. Like Anmatt, he contested the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup, a race he won last year; this year, he finished fourth. He didn’t get a clear run, facing a wall of horses 2 f out, he did well to only go down 1¾L. Connections have been patient with him, bypassing Sandown and York, waiting for an ease in the ground.

White Birch getting saddled at the Curragh in May

Johnny Murtagh’s Zahrann is an improving three-year-old. Ben Coen is in the plate. He only made his debut at Navan in April, finishing second in a Maiden. He then won a Cork Maiden very easily, won at Listed level at Leopardstown, and then progressed again to run second in the G2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot. He was given a summer break and brought back in August, winning a G3 at Leopardstown.

Zahrann on debut at Navan in April

Jessica Harrington sends Hotazhell, the mount of Shane Foley. He is somewhat the forgotten horse in the race. A smart juvenile, he won the G2 Beresford Stakes and beat Delecroix a nose in the G1 Futurity Trophy Stakes at Doncaster. This year, he made an encouraging start when third in the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas. He went to Sandown for the G1 Coral-Eclipse, where he didn’t handle the fast ground, finishing fifth. He then crossed the pond to upstate New York, going off favourite for the G1 Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes, but he didn’t get a clear run and did well to finish fourth, beaten 1¾L.

Hotazhell at the Curragh in May

Conclusion

We haven’t got round three of Delacroix and Ombudsman, however, this is still an intriguing contest. The ground will have a bearing on this; it’s soft. That may well blunt the turn of foot the Ballydoyle team hoped to see from Delacroix; it won’t favour Shin Emperor, nor Zahrann or Royal Champion. Anmatt, Hotazhell, and White Birch will all be on the ground they prefer. The patience shown by connections of the latter could well be rewarded here.

Recommendation

White Birch 9/2 win