Australia odds-on favourite for Qipco Irish Champion Stakes win at Leopardstown

Tower Of London is back out again quickly in the Friends Of The Curragh Irish Cesarewitch having finished fourth in the St Leger at Doncaster last week. The three-year-old features in a maximum field of 30 and he will be ridden by Ryan Moore, who jets back from Australia overnight to take the ride. Tower Of London, a brother to Irish Derby and St…

The Irish Champions Stakes (3.20) is regularly regarded as one of Europe's highest-quality Flat contests and it certainly doesn't disappoint this time around. Four of the top five in the betting are trained outside of Ireland and that can only be a good thing in terms of competition as they bid to deny Aidan O'Brien his 12th success in the…

For its 10th birthday this weekend, Irish flat racing's showpiece event of the year gets a new name, an old friend's farewell, and maybe even Aidan O'Brien's finest ever training feat. What was Champions Weekend is now the Irish Champions Festival, although regardless of what it says on the tin inside it still contains some of the very best this…

Irish Champions Weekend kicks off with an excellent card at Leopardstown on Saturday. The main event on the card is the Irish Champion Stakes, a Group One which has been won by legendary horses like Dylan Thomas, Golden Horn and Sea The Stars. Here's our free guide to the 2023 Irish Champion Stakes, including our best betting tips. Strong cases can…

Big spring plans are in-store for Kiwi-bred Group One winner Atishu if she performs up to expectations in the early part of her preparation, which will kick-off at Rosehill on Saturday. The daughter of Savabeel is fresh off being crowned the joint'Queen of the Autumn' at the New South Wales Racehorse Owners' Association Awards after her deeds…

THE Irish Champions Festival takes place at Leopardstown and Curragh this weekend. The two-day extravaganza is a feast of quality racing, starting with two Group 1s at Leopardstown on Saturday, and ending with in four Group 1s at the Curragh on Sunday with hundreds of thousands of Euros in prize money up for grabs! As with any top racing festival,…

Day 1 of Irish Champions Festival sees five Group contests at Leopardstown on Saturday before Sunday's Curragh meeting with another five Group races. This weekend is what it's all come down to for many of the horses lining up in Ireland this weekend, as hundreds of thousands of Euros are up for grabs, especially in the multiple Group 1 feature…

Tom Thurgood ponders whether some course specialists will shine on a top-class double bill from Leopardstown and the Curragh this weekend for the latest instalment of the Irish Champions Festival. Don't miss a moment live on Racing TV. Race: Coolmore America'Justify' Matron Stakes (Group 1): 5 Percentage of rivals beaten: 88% Zarinsk continued her…

Ahead of the G1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday [Sept 9], jockey Wayne Lordan and trainer Joseph O'Brien talk about the four-time G1 winner who in 2019 beat America's best in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf after scoring on Irish Champions Weekend As part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series, the Coolmore America'Justify' Matron…

Indications thus far this season suggest that the Aidan O'Brien's'Class of 2023' juveniles are a highly talented class. Here are five potential stars to look forward to for the rest of the season and beyond. Henry Longfellow was of automatic interest when he made his racecourse debut at the Curragh on Irish Oaks day, not just because he was making…

What's in a name, one wonders? It is no longer Irish Champions Weekend, you know? It is the Irish Champions Festival. If, indeed, the original moniker was the inadvertent thumb in the dam which prevented the seemingly oblivious public from flooding the Leopardstown and Curragh venues with racegoers for the greatest weekend of Flat racing that this…

Aidan O'Brien is likely to hand Group 1 assignments to two of his most exciting prospects, with City Of Troy and Ylang Ylang set to appear at the Curragh at the Irish Champions Festival next month. City Of Troy is unbeaten in two starts and bolted up by six and a half lengths in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket last month. A son of…

Hailing from a family that includes Breeders' Cup winner Line Of Duty, Jackie Oh won a Naas maiden on her racecourse bow in March but had been out of luck since, hitting the bar in Listed company before being beaten just under six lengths when fifth in the Irish 1000 Guineas. She failed to sparkle in a competitive handicap at Royal Ascot - but…

Irish Champions Weekend is finished but, fear not, the blockbuster bash is going nowhere and has simply been renamed the Irish Champions Festival in a "subtle but important" rebrand. The inaugural Irish Champion Weekend was in 2014 when the Irish Champion Stakes card at Leopardstown and the Irish St Leger at the Curragh were put back-to-back on a…

Tahiyra, this year's Irish 1000 Guineas victress (David Betts) By Breandán Ó hUallacháin Tahiyra (2/5f) won the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh on Sunday, giving her trainer Dermot Weld a sixth victory in the fillies' Group 1 and a 27th European classic. Weld, a former Belmont Stakes-winning trainer with Go and Go in 1990, saw his…

It's the first of the English Classics this weekend as Newmarket racecourse get ready for another Guineas weekend. It's also a meeting that all corners of the globe will have an interest in with this fixture the first of 18 UK and Ireland Tote World Pool days this year. For those that don't know, World Pool is a partnership of Totes from around the…

Dermot Weld's Classic heroine Homeless Songs is set to skip Saturday's Qipco British Champions Day action at Ascot with her trainer already looking forward to seeing the filly in action in 2023. The daughter of Frankel put up one of the most impressive performances of 2022 when routing her opposition in May's Irish 1000 Guineas at the…

Chris Hayes celebrates after winning the Moyglare Stud Stakes on Tahiyra during day two of the Longines Irish Champions Weekend at The Curragh Racecourse in Kildare. PIC: Sportsfile THERE was success for Limerick jockeys across the Longines Irish Champions weekend. DAY ONE LEOPARDSTOWN Paddy Twomey's remarkable season hit another high as 16/1 shot…

Eddie Lynam: trainer of Jon Riggins, a well fancied favourite for the first race at the Curragh There are four back-to-back Group 1 races at the Curragh - it doesn't get any better than that! The Brits look likely protagonists in the Derrinstown Stud Flying Five Stakes (2.55), with Nunthorpe heroine Winter Power, Glass Slippers and Dragon Symbol at…

Leopardstown: expecting tickets for Saturday's Longines Irish Champions Weekend card to sell out Longines Irish Champions Weekend is expected to be a sold-out event, with organisers at the meeting's host tracks experiencing high demand for the 4000 tickets on offer. Tickets went on sale last Friday for those who had previously expressed an interest…

Magical: won a high-class running of the Irish Champion Stakes last year It's almost here. Longines Irish Champions Weekend takes place this Saturday and Sunday, with leading international performers doing battle across a host of divisions at Leopardstown and the Curragh. First introduced in 2014, the massive two-day meeting begins with eight races…

Ground conditions could be set to ease at Leopardstown ahead of Saturday's QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes although jockey Oisin Murphy doesn't envisage going being a problem for the odds-on favourite Roaring Lion. The Qatar Racing owned colt moved to a best-priced 4-5 favourite for the €1.25 million'Irish Champions Weekend' highlight after Tuesday's…

Big spring plans are in-store for Kiwi-bred Group One winner Atishu if she performs up to expectations in the early part of her preparation, which will kick-off at Rosehill on Saturday. The daughter of Savabeel is fresh off being crowned the joint'Queen of the Autumn' at the New South Wales Racehorse Owners' Association Awards after her deeds…