Champions’ Weekend clearly revolving around Australia
Leopardstown sets the ball rolling on Saturday, September 13, with the Curragh the following day, clashing with the start of the Listowel festival.
The highlight, of course, will be the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown and all those involved in promoting these two meeting will literally be on their hands and knees praying that nothing happens to prevent Australia meeting this engagement. Because, make no mistake about it, the possibility of the major innovation proving a big success very much centres around the appearance of Aidan O’Brien’s superstar.
A no-show from Australia will see this surely being dubbed the Champions’ Weekend damp squib.
If Australia does run at Leopardstown, and that seems to be very much the plan, it will be fascinating to see what sort of crowd turns up to see him. It is only five years since one of the greatest flat horses of all time, Sea The Stars, only attracted an attendance of around 9,000 for the Irish Champion Stakes.
Some three months later, on St Stephen’s Day, 18,000 hardy souls made their way to Leopardstown for National Hunt racing.
Leopardstown plans to start at 3.35, with the main supporting race the Group 1 Matron Stakes for fillies. The Champion Stakes is due off at 6.50. Oh, and by the way, the Champion Stakes has a guaranteed value of €1m. First prize will be €590,000, the second will receive €200,000 and the third €100,000. There will be money right down to eighth and he/she will snaffle €10,000.
That particular weekend will obviously be all about Australia, but here’s one who is looking forward to the Irish Leger at the Curragh almost as much.
The reason is the chance to finally get a handle on just how good Dermot Weld’s Forgotten Rules really is.
We have discussed this horse here before and know that his easy bumper win at the Punchestown festival and subsequent canter around when winning easily at the Galway festival told us he has a fair engine. And that’s really all we know.
At Galway, he gave Shu Lewis 1lb and an eight lengths beating. Shu Lewis reappeared at the Curragh last Sunday and her display bears the closest inspection.
She was beaten a length and a quarter and a short head into third behind Leading Light and Royal Diamond.
Leading Light was conceding her 8lbs, so strictly on that running there should be little or nothing between him and Forgotten Rules.
But Leading Light is a proven Group 1 performer, who was only using that race as a warm up for the Leger.
If Forgotten Rules can make a race of it at the Curragh then Weld will know he has something serious with which to go to war.
, I will not be able to figure out the betting on the maiden hurdle won by Pyromanic at Killarney last Saturday.
This shaped like an absolute match between Pyromanic and Henry de Bromhead’s bumper winner, Solatentif.
The bumper Solatentif won was at Killarney in the middle of July and there was no getting away from the fact he was impressive.
But there was little or no test of the race and it was just as likely to be worthless as anything else.
In contrast, Pyromaniac brought a decent level of flat form to the table and had also enjoyed one spin around over flights.
To my way of thinking Pyromaniac was entitled to be put in as favourite, but instead Solatentif was long odds-on in the morning, with his rival on offer at an astonishing 7-2.
When you factored in the talented Shane Shortall’s claim, Pyromanaic was getting 7lbs as well from a horse that was making his debut over jumps and was only having the second run of his life.
By the time the starter let them go at Killarney, Solatentif was 4-9, quite extraordinary, with Pyromaniac 100-30 and almost 9-2 on the exchanges, equally extraordinary.
The only thing that wasn’t extraordinary was watching Pyromaniac strolling home almost five lengths clear of Solatentif.
There are usually very good reasons when something like this happens, so we can only conclude that ignorance was bliss!
to a horse was never better illustrated than by the performance of Michael Halford’s Raydara in the Debutante Stakes at the Curragh last Sunday.
When she won her maiden at Leopardstown, Raydara made all of the running. Understandably, similar tactics were then adopted in a Group 3 next time, also at Leopardstown, when she ran in the first two for most of the journey. She eventually faded to fill fourth behind Jack Naylor.
If one thing doesn’t work then you have to travel a different road and so, in the Debutante Stakes, Shane Foley dropped her out last.
It worked like a dream and Raydara powered through late to beat a high-class field cosily in the end. I doubt we will ever see her make the running again!
. Rated 93 in a maiden at the Curragh last Sunday, she had a theoretical 10lbs in hand of Adjusted.
But punters thought that was hilarious and made Adjusted the 9-4 favourite, he won, with Chicago Girl, she finished eighth, a 16-1 shot.
The handicapper has dropped her another 7lbs to a mark of 86. She’s not within an ass’ roar of being an 86 either!
