Biggest names take aim at Irish Champions Festival feature races
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Economics just gets the better of Auguste Rodin with Shin Emperor (left) taking third place in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes on the opening day of Irish Champions Festival at Leopardstown last year. The first and third horses could clash again in the latest renewal of the race in September. Photo: Patrick McCann/Racing Post
The Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes is on course to entrench its status as one of the world’s best races, judged on initial entries for Leopardstown’s €1.25 million showpiece on the opening day of Irish Champions Festival on Saturday, September 13.
Ranked the eighth best race run in the world in 2024 in the World’s Top 100 Races, joint sixth in 2023 and previously as high as second in 2020, this year’s stellar cast is led by William Haggas’ reigning champion Economics, owned by race sponsor Sheikh Isa Salman Al Khalifa, Japanese globe trotter Shin Emperor and recent Irish Guineas winners Field Of Gold and Lake Victoria.
Shin Emperor was only beaten a length when third behind Economics in last year’s renewal and his trainer Yoshito Yahagi has also entered the Grade 1 runner-up and dual Grade 3-winning mare Ravel.
Other notable overseas entries include the Francis Graffard-trained Calandagan, Owen Burrows’ Anmaat and the Ed Walker-trained Almaqam. John and Thady Gosden’s Damysus, a stable companion of Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Field Of Gold also features along with Ralph Beckett’s duo, Pride Of Arras and Stanhope Gardens.
Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Lake Victoria tops Aidan O'Brien’s team that includes the three-time Group 1 winner Los Angeles, French 2,000 Guineas winner Henri Matisse, and the stable’s big Epsom Derby hopes Delacroix and The Lion In Winter.
While there are 56 entries in total for the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, 57 entries have been made for the Comer Group International Irish St Leger at the Curragh on the second day of Irish Champions Festival, Sunday, September 14.
Leading the way are Aidan O'Brien’s pair Illinois and Jan Brueghel, the John and Thady Gosden-trained Trawlerman and Willie Mullins’ smart dual-purpose performer Absurde.
Also included are Ralph Beckett’s 2024 Juddmonte Irish Oaks winner You Got To Me, Prix Royal-Oak winner Double Major, trained by Christophe Ferland, and William Haggas’ Dubai Honour, which won his latest Group 1 at Rosehill, in Sydney, in early April.
Joseph O'Brien’s dual Group 1 scorer Al Riffa, the Karl Burke-trained Al Qareem, Gerry Keane’s Crystal Black and the Charlie Appleby-trained Arabian Crown could also make their mark.
The first three horses home in the Group 2 Comer Group International 54th Oleander-Rennen at Hoppegarten in early May, the Henk Grewe-trained Flatten The Curve, Willie McCreery’s Enfranchise and the Pavel Vovcenko-trained Waldadler, sixth in the race behind the mighty Kyprios last year, have each received an entry for the final Classic of the year.
Click here to view the entries for the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes
Click here to view the entries for the Comer Group International Irish St Leger
Ranked the eighth best race run in the world in 2024 in the World’s Top 100 Races, joint sixth in 2023 and previously as high as second in 2020, this year’s stellar cast is led by William Haggas’ reigning champion Economics, owned by race sponsor Sheikh Isa Salman Al Khalifa, Japanese globe trotter Shin Emperor and recent Irish Guineas winners Field Of Gold and Lake Victoria.
Shin Emperor was only beaten a length when third behind Economics in last year’s renewal and his trainer Yoshito Yahagi has also entered the Grade 1 runner-up and dual Grade 3-winning mare Ravel.
Other notable overseas entries include the Francis Graffard-trained Calandagan, Owen Burrows’ Anmaat and the Ed Walker-trained Almaqam. John and Thady Gosden’s Damysus, a stable companion of Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Field Of Gold also features along with Ralph Beckett’s duo, Pride Of Arras and Stanhope Gardens.
Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Lake Victoria tops Aidan O'Brien’s team that includes the three-time Group 1 winner Los Angeles, French 2,000 Guineas winner Henri Matisse, and the stable’s big Epsom Derby hopes Delacroix and The Lion In Winter.
While there are 56 entries in total for the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, 57 entries have been made for the Comer Group International Irish St Leger at the Curragh on the second day of Irish Champions Festival, Sunday, September 14.
Leading the way are Aidan O'Brien’s pair Illinois and Jan Brueghel, the John and Thady Gosden-trained Trawlerman and Willie Mullins’ smart dual-purpose performer Absurde.
Also included are Ralph Beckett’s 2024 Juddmonte Irish Oaks winner You Got To Me, Prix Royal-Oak winner Double Major, trained by Christophe Ferland, and William Haggas’ Dubai Honour, which won his latest Group 1 at Rosehill, in Sydney, in early April.
Joseph O'Brien’s dual Group 1 scorer Al Riffa, the Karl Burke-trained Al Qareem, Gerry Keane’s Crystal Black and the Charlie Appleby-trained Arabian Crown could also make their mark.
The first three horses home in the Group 2 Comer Group International 54th Oleander-Rennen at Hoppegarten in early May, the Henk Grewe-trained Flatten The Curve, Willie McCreery’s Enfranchise and the Pavel Vovcenko-trained Waldadler, sixth in the race behind the mighty Kyprios last year, have each received an entry for the final Classic of the year.
Click here to view the entries for the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes
Click here to view the entries for the Comer Group International Irish St Leger
