Champions Weekend: St Mark’s Basilica delivers as Harrington celebrates 389-1 stable double

St Mark’s Basilica and Ryan Moore (purple) win the Irish Champion Stakes (Group 1). Picture: Healy Racing

There were just four runners, but once again the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, the feature on the opening day of the eighth Longines Irish Champions Weekend, delivered in spades. The three Group 1 winners in the race crossed the line with barely a length covering them, and it was St Mark’s Basilica who prevailed to secure his fifth consecutive top-level success. It was the first of the meeting for Aidan O’Brien, Ryan Moore and team Coolmore.

Rank outsider Patrick Sarsfield ensured a strong pace from the outset, with Poetic Flare, St Mark’s Basilica and Tarnawa, racing in that order, ensuring Indian file for much of the race. English Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Poetic Flare travelled with tremendous zest and was first to mount a challenge to the leader.