Delacroix among stars on show at Leopardstown for Irish Champions Festival

Delacroix bids to bounce back in Champion

Having won the Coral-Eclipse after a disappointing run when 2/1 favourite for the Betfred Derby, Delacroix now has to prove himself all over again following last month’s well-held second to Ombudsman – the horse he’d swept home late to beat at Sandown – in the Juddmonte International at York.

Saturday’s Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, run over the same 10-furlong trip at Leopardstowen that saw him win both the Ballysax and Derby Trials Stakes at the beginning of the year, would appear to present an ideal opportunity for the son of Dubawi to do just that.

With a Timeform master rating of 129, the three-year-old is already among the best middle-distance performers in the world and will look to atone for a half-length defeat at the hands of Green Impact in last season’s KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes on day one of the Irish Champions Festival.

Chief among his opposition could be fellow three-year-old Zahrann, trained by Johnny Murtagh and on a rapid ascent based on last month’s Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes win at the Curragh. He appreciated the drop back to a mile and a quarter that day, having finished second to Amiloc in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and brings bags of potential into Saturday’s Group 1.

There is not much we don’t already know about the older, more established pair of Anmaat and White Birch, although the former will be partnered by Chris Hayes for the first time after Shadwell’s principal rider Jim Crowley suffered a nasty fall last weekend which will put him out of action for a considerable amount of time.

Anmaat’s win over Calandagan on Champions Day at Ascot last October was out of the top drawer and he’s not been far below that level – if at all – despite suffered defeat at the hands of Los Angeles and Ombudsman in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and Prince of Wales’s Stakes this time around.

The more rain the better for him, one would imagine, and the same applies to the hugely talented White Birch who hasn’t been able to get a prep run on account of quick conditions but has had this weekend and the Arc on his agenda since a slightly unlucky fourth in the aforementioned Tattersalls Gold Cup.

As well as the Owen Burrows-trained Anmaat, Britain is represented by Karl Burke’s recent Sky Bet York Stakes winner Royal Champion, who arguably won’t be as effective on a rain-hit surface, nor will the big hope from Japan, Shin Emperor, who is back for another shot after being beaten a length into third behind Economics in this race last September.

Along with the favourite Delacroix, Aidan O’Brien has left in Expanded, Mount Kilimanjaro, Serengeti and smart filly Whirl, who blotted her copybook in Sunday’s Prix Vermeille.

Hotazhell (Jessica Harrington) and the Dermot Weld-trained Purview complete the dozen potential runners.

Paddy Power: 4/5 Delacroix, 4/1 Shin Emperor, 11/2 Anmaat, Zahrann, 15/2 White Birch, 16/1 Whirl, 20/1 Royal Champion, 33/1 Hotazhell, 40/1 Purview, 66/1 Expanded, 100/1 Mount Kilimanjaro, 150/1 Serengeti.

Rivalries renewed in Matron

Three-year-olds have completely dominated the Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes in the past decade, with Pearls Galore three years ago the only older horse to emerge on top since 2014, and that goes some way to underlining the task facing Burke’s Fallen Angel as she looks to follow-up her G1 score in France last month.

Fallen Angel is no stranger to success in Ireland too, of course, having won the Guineas at the Curragh last spring, but she had to settle for second behind Porta Fortuna in the 2024 Matron and the layers make her second-best here again, with the horse she edged out in the Prix Rothschild - Aidan O’Brien’s January - topping the market as she bids for revenge.

January has filled the runner-up spot in four of her last six outings and has failed to get her head in front now since last August, but she can still lay claim to being one of the best three-year-old miling fillies having been placed in the Coronation Stakes and again against her elders in the Falmouth, although genuinely testing ground would be an unknown (rain forecast).

Having had January back in third when winning the Coronation at Royal Ascot in June, Cercene has since bumped into an enterprisingly-ridden Whirl in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood (flag start, heavy ground) and she is likely to be more effective back over a mile, while O’Brien second-string Exactly has already finished behind Cercene (Ascot) and Fallen Angel (Deauville) this year and couldn’t be considered an unlucky loser despite suffering a troubled passage late on when sixth in the Sky Bet City Of York Stakes last time.

The talented One Look runs in new silks having been bought by Wathnan Racing following her Curragh win in July and the dual Group 3 winner Vera’s Secret landed a valuable handicap at this fixture 12 months ago but might want the ground to remain on top if she’s to extend her course record to a perfect four from four.

Paddy Power: 2/1 January, 9/4 Fallen Angel, 5/1 Cercene, 10/1 Exactly, 12/1 Vera’s Secret, 14/1 Cathedral, Choisya, One Look, 25/1 Atsila, California Dreamer, Sparks Fly, 40/1 Duckadilly, 66/1 Queen Of Thunder.

O'Brien go mob-handed in top juvenile heat

Other key clashes on Saturday include an O’Brien-heavy edition of the KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes. Ballydoyle have half a dozen choicely-bred colts in contention including Montreal, the son of Sea The Stars who bounded clear from the front to win his maiden over the same mile here early last month.

Not to be outdone, Joseph O’Brien has left North Coast, Hardy Warrior, Limestone and Nil Bua Gan Dua in the race, while younger brother Donnacha could saddle A Boy Names Susie who was fourth over seven furlongs in the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh.

The Tonybet Solonaway Stakes also carries Group 2 status and Gavin Cromwell’s Snellen could bid to take the next step up after causing a 16/1 surprise in beating Purview and Galen in the Meld Stakes in July.

She may face a strong challenge from across the Irish Sea in Ed Dunlop’s Skukuza, winner of a Listed race at the Curragh on his previous venture to these parts, and Jack Channon’s stalwart Johan.

There are 20 in the mix for the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Sovereign Path Handicap, 29 in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Petingo Handicap and 28 entered up for the Hong Kong Jockey Club World Pool Autumn Fillies Handicap, with the Michael O’Callaghan-trained filly Noli Timere bidding for a hatr-trick in the last-named.

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