Irish Champions Festival analysis: Donn McClean on Delacroix and the other big winners

The action pauses at the half-time interval and the lights go down. Literally. Dark when you are walking out of Leopardstown on Saturday night, nine races down, eight more to go.

There’s something about the change in venue too that allows you to take stock. There are big race meetings at which the days can roll together. Like, you’re not sure if the Britannia Handicap is on the Thursday at Royal Ascot or on the Wednesday, or maybe even on the Friday. Even at the Dublin Racing Festival in February, only two days, but is the Spring Juvenile Hurdle run on the Saturday or the Sunday? At the Irish Champions Festival, you’re sure that the Sovereign Path Handicap is run at Leopardstown on the Saturday, and that the Bold Lad Handicap is run at The Curragh on Sunday.

It's called Irish Champions Festival these days, but people still call it Irish Champions Weekend because, well, how long is it since you were told to call Twitter X? And it started this year with the Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes – as it did 11 years ago, when they gathered all the good races together for the first time and this weekend extravaganza of top-class racing came into being – and rolled on through Leopardstown on Saturday and down the M7 to The Curragh on Sunday, ending with the Northfields Handicap just before tea time.

That opening contest was won by Diamond Necklace, trained by Aidan O’Brien, ridden by Christophe Soumillon, and that set the tone for the day. If the superstar Belgian rider was feeling even a little nervous during the preamble – big weekend ahead, Ryan Moore out injured, Wayne Lordan out suspended, sur le devant de la scène, and even Messi has butterflies before kick-off – you couldn't tell, and you certainly didn’t cop it during the race either, as he sat fully eight or nine lengths off the leader, still motionless, as they rounded the home turn and faced up to the two-furlong marker.

You might have been a little nervous yourself if you had had the two on to win the one, but you would have been congratulating yourself before they got to the 150-yard marker, and you could have cheered her home from there if you wanted with a never-in-any-doubt swagger.

The St Mark’s Basilica filly is now two for two and, a half-sister to Ribblesdale Stakes and Mackinnon Stakes winner Magic Wand, and to Irish Oaks winner Chicquita, she could go for the Rockfel Stakes or the Fillies’ Mile or the Prix Marcel Boussac next. Longer term, she is a Classic prospect for next season for sure, as much an Oaks prospect as she is a Guineas prospect.

Benvenuto Cellini is also a Classic claimant for next year, all going well, those claims further enhanced by the performance that he put up in winning the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes.

The Frankel colt had been impressive in winning his maiden at Killarney in July, and he was more impressive on Saturday, stalking the leader Hardy Warrior – himself an impressive winner of his maiden – as he did, into the home straight and clearing away inside the final furlong. It could be the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster for him next, and you can be sure that the stepping stones to Epsom next year will be plotted from here.

Diamond Necklace and Benvenuto Cellini were very good, but they were still only support acts to Delacroix, who made it three on the day for Aidan O’Brien and Christophe Soumillon when he bagged the feature, the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes.

Expectation levels were high, according to the market, then lower, then higher again, probably as the realisation dawned on the market that, actually, this ground may not be as soft as was being predicted all week.

Delacroix was very, very good. There was that turn of foot that took him from fifth place passing the three-furlong pole to first place passing the two-furlong pole, and far enough clear of his rivals to allow him cross in front of them and onto the stands rail. You couldn’t really appreciate that surge from the rails-eye view. Not fully. But then you saw the overhead shot... Whoosh.

You can see his value as a stallion for sure. A total out-cross, Aidan O’Brien said. By Dubawi out of the Queen Anne winner Tepin, a Bernstein mare.

Even so, it would be a real shame if we didn’t get to see him race again. And, ideally, if and when he does race again, Ombudsman will be lying in wait. It’s unlikely, of course, the ground would have to be atypical on Champion Stakes day at Ascot in October, but the decider would be an even greater draw now than it would have been at Leopardstown.

Delacroix’s victory, happening, as it did, almost two hours after Scandinavia’s victory in the St Leger at Doncaster, took Aidan O’Brien’s Group 1 tally for the year to 17, and Precise’s victory in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at The Curragh on Sunday took it to 18. That’s right in sync with where he was at this stage in 2017, when he set the new world record for Group/Grade 1 victories on the world stage at 28. He could push that bar even higher before the year is out.

Ronan Whelan was very good on Precise. He sat up on the outside of runners from early, making sure that he had one of his main dangers Venetian Sun covered before he asked his filly for maximum effort. His filly was good too, the Prestige Stakes winner from Goodwood. She picked up well and went to the line strongly, coming away from her stable companion Beautify in the closing stages.

It was a fourth Group 1 race win for the rider, coming, as it did, exactly seven years since he rode his first, for Patrick Prendergast and Sonia and Anthony Rogers, on their filly Skitter Scatter, also in this race, the Moyglare Stud Stakes.

The Ballydoyle favourite Gstaad just gave best in the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes to Zavateri, but there was no shame in that. Eve Johnson Houghton’s colt may have cost just 35,000 guineas as a yearling, but he was unbeaten going into the race, a dual Group 2 winner, and he dug deeply and battled back bravely for Charlie Bishop to record his first Group 1 win and retain his unbeaten record.

We saw the Without Parole colt’s tenacity in the Vintage Stakes at Glorious Goodwood in July, when he got back up to get home by a short head from Morris Dancer. And the Godolphin colt went on to win a listed race at Salisbury next time, beating subsequent Solario Stakes winner A Bit Of Spirit, by four lengths. It’s strong form.

He had to survive a stewards’ enquiry too, but the bump was after the line, not before it, and nobody really thought that placings would be reversed. This was a second Group 1 win for trainer and jockey, who teamed up to win the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2018 with Accidental Agent, and it was the latest high in a really good season that the pair of them are enjoying.

Fellow British trainer Karl Burke is also enjoying a fine season. He sent Fallen Angel to this meeting in 2023 to win the Moyglare, and he sent her back this year to land the Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes, going one place better under James Doyle than she did in the race last year when she had to give best to Porta Fortuna.

About 35 minutes earlier, Convergent had won the Group 3 CMG Group Stakes, doing well to stay on as strongly as he did, all the way through the line too, given how keenly he raced through the early stages of the contest. This was just his fifth run, and there could be a lot more to come. And Alparslan ran out an impressive winner of the Tattersalls Ireland Super Sales Stakes on Sunday to make it three on the weekend for Karl Burke and two for rider Clifford Lee.

Dylan Browne McMonagle said after he won the Comer Group International Irish St Leger on Al Riffa that this fellow was one of his favourite horses, and it’s easy to see why. It was at this meeting three years ago that the young rider landed his first Group 1 win, when he drove the same Al Riffa to victory in the National Stakes. And he landed his second when he won the Grosser Pries von Berlin at Hoppegarten on the son of Wootton Basset.

The Donegal prodigy, currently in front in the 2025 Irish jockeys’ championship, was winning the fifth Group 1 race of his career on Sunday, and three of those five have been on Al Riffa.

Joseph O’Brien’s horse was very good too. He travelled really well in rear through the early part of the race. His rider allowed him ease his way through his field from the top of the home straight before allowing him ease his way up to join Amiloc at the furlong marker. Then he asked his horse for his effort, and Al Riffa stayed on strongly to come four lengths clear.

Now a Group 1 winner over seven, 12 and 14 furlongs, Al Riffa saw out the trip well on Sunday, as he had done in the Curragh Cup, and that augurs well for his Melbourne Cup aspirations. His trainer knows exactly what is required for that race, he has won it twice, and it makes sense that Al Riffa is high in the market for the 2025 renewal.

The market had the Group 2 Moyglare “Jewels” Blandford Stakes between One Look and Red Letter and, indeed, the market wasn’t that far out, they finished second and third respectively, but neither could get to Barnavara. Sent to the front from flagfall by Shane Foley, Jessica Harrington’s filly picked up well in front early in the home straight, and she had enough in reserve to get home quite comfortably and bring up a second win in the race in five years for trainer and rider after Cayenne Pepper’s victory in 2020.

Surprises too at the ICF

There were surprises too. Pat Foley had just one runner over the course of the weekend, Tango Flare, who sprang a 50/1 shock under Luke McAteer in the Bold Lad Handicap, the opening contest at The Curragh on Sunday.

Donnacha O’Brien had four runners, all at Leopardstown on Saturday, and all four ran well. The Athasi Stakes winner Atsila bounced back to form with a big run to finish third in the Matron, Commanche Brave ran a cracker to finish a close-up third in the Solonaway Stakes. Then supremely well-bred Happy Pharoah stayed on strongly to land the Petingo Handicap, battling on well for Paddy Harnett to get the better of Light As Air in an O’Brien (Donnacha-Aidan-Joseph all-ways) trifecta.

Stephen Thorne had four runners too. Gleneagle Bay finished fourth in the Sovereign Path Handicap, new recruit Sir Les Patterson finished third in the Bold Lad Handicap, and Pink Oxalis stayed on strongly for David Egan to win the Hong Kong Jockey Club World Pool Autumn Fillies Handicap, the concluding contest at Leopardstown on Saturday.

Better was to follow for David Egan too on Sunday. It can’t have been easy for him, choosing between Arizona Blaze and Bucanero Fuerte in the Group 1 Bar One Racing Flying Five. And there wasn’t much between the Adrian Murray-trained pair at any stage of the race.

Drawn almost beside each other in stalls two and four respectively, they matched strides for much of the race over on the far side and they traded the lead: Bucanero Fuerte, Colin Keane in the white cap, in front until half way, Arizona Blaze, David Egan in the stars, dots-like from afar, from there to the winning line, and just a length between them when they got there.

“I love this racecourse,” said winning owner Kia Joorabchian of Amo Racing. “Irish racing is on the way up. It’s getting better and better, and it’s nice to come here and compete.”

One that got away for Murtagh

Johnny Murtagh came here and competed too. And how. Just shows you, the competitive spirit of the former multiple champion jockey, when he reflected on Leopardstown at the end of Saturday, his main focus was on Zahrann’s defeat in the Irish Champion Stakes, not on Alakazi’s victory in the Group 2 Solonaway Stakes, nor on Rahmi’s victory in the Sovereign Path Handicap.

There will surely be other days for Zahrann, this can’t have been his true running, and there is every chance that there will be even better days too for Alakazi, but this was a good one. The Footstepsinthesand colt had threatened at Listed race level and at Group 3 level before, but he took a nice step forward here in running out an impressive winner of the Group 2 contest under Ben Coen.

He holds an entry in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot next month, and he would be a really interesting contender in that if he took his chance. Longer term, he could be a very exciting prospect over all distances between eight and 10 furlongs next season.

Rahmi was given a fine patient ride by apprentice Rory Mulligan, delivered wide and late to land the Sovereign Path Handicap, and Shaool was given a similarly patient ride by Ben Coen, delivered wide and late too, to land the finale, the Northfields Handicap, and make it two for Ben Coen for the weekend, and three for Johnny Murtagh.

Some weekend. Then the lights went down again.

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