On Sunday morning (3.50am Australian time) the latest renewal of the Irish Champion Stakes takes place. Run at Leopardstown, Dublin over a distance of 2000m it is Ireland’s premier open age/WFA race.
Past winners include Sadler’s Wells, Daylami, Giants Causeway, High Chaparral, So You Think and the magnificent Sea the Stars.
This years running while not a classic renewal still carries plenty of interest, mainly due to the ground conditions. At the moment the official going is good to firm however substantial rain is predicted on Friday night.
Roger Charlton has proclaimed all summer that his charge, Al Kazeem does not enjoy firm going. Despite these assertions he has still managed to win the Prince of Wales and the Eclipse on fast ground, however he came undone in International last month at York.
Due to this connections came to the conclusion they went to the well to many times with the horse and gave up all hope on this race before the change in weather forecast.
A horse that will not want a lot of rain is Declaration of War, he has won on soft going but not at this level. Its hard to place this horses true ability.
He bombed in the Lockinge at the start of the season when there were great things expected of him from Ballydoyle. Then he won an average Queen Anne (let’s write off Animal Kingdom’s performance in that one).
After that it looked like Al Kazeem in the Eclipse and the 3 year olds in the Sussex had a bit to spare in beating him. However in last months Judmonte International he put in a fine performance to account for Al Kazeem and Trading Leather.
Another of Aidan O’Brien’s runners of interest his Kingsbarns. Not seen since winning the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy as a 2 year old he missed most of this year with injury. It might be asking too much of him to win this first up but he has got form on soft going if it does rain.
Trading Leather is a reliable sort who put in a good performance when 2nd to Declaration of War last time. His trainer Jim Bolger has said previously he likes the ground firm so maybe avoid him if it rains. The Fugue is also a good horse but she has yet to match it against the boys.
If it does rain as expected the following are my predictions:
1. Al Kazeem 2. Declaration of War 3. Kingsbarns.
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