Overseas raiders Shin Emperor from Japan, and the British-trained Anmaat and Royal Champion, will face a strong home challenge in the 1 mile 2 furlong race at 5.30pm.

Course and distance winner Delacroix

Aidan O’Brien’s Delacroix, twice a winner over course and distance at the South County Dublin track, is the current favourite for the Group 1 race. In the absence of the injured Ryan Moore and suspended Wayne Lordan, the son of Dubawi will be the mount of Belgian rider Christophe Soumillon. The Ballydoyle handler has won the race six of the last seven years, and will be bidding for a career total thirteenth success in the contest.

Anmaat, twice a Group 1 scorer, including a win in last season’s Champion Stakes on British Champions day at Ascot for his handler Owen Burrows, is next best in the betting market. The Shadwell-owned seven-year-old will be ridden by Chris Hayes, though a horse of that age has never been successful in the race’s history.

Yoshito Yahagi’s Shin Emperor, a fast-finishing third in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes behind Economics and Auguste Rodin last season, hasn’t run since being seventh of nine in the Sheema Classic at Meydan last April. With rain forecast overnight, the soft ground may provide a challenge to the Japanese raider with the colt accustomed to a sound surface.

Murtagh bids for first Irish Champion Stakes win

The Johnny Murtagh-conditioned three-year-old son of Night Of Thunder, Zahrann, will carry the colours of the Exors of the Late H H Aga Khan, and Ben Coen will take the mount on the 113-rated colt, as he bids to give Murtagh a first win in Saturday’s feature.

White Birch, winner of last season’s Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh, and third in this year’s edition of the same race, will represent Joe Murphy and leading flat jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle in the €1.25 million race. The 121-rated grey has been absent from the racetrack since May.

The Group 2 York Stakes winner Royal Champion, from the Karl Burke yard in England, will have the assistance of Clifford Lee from the saddle, as the seven-year-old son of Shamardal runs over his optimum distance of 1 mile 2 furlongs.

Hotazhell, who last visited the winner’s circle when taking the 2024 Group 1 William Hill Futurity Trophy Stakes at Doncaster, will bid to give Jessica Harrington a first success in the Irish Champion Stakes, while Mount Kilimanjaro, who was Group 1-placed as a juvenile and will represent the same trainer and ownership as Coral-Eclipse victor Delacroix, will likely set the pace under Ronan Whelan.

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Marquand had earlier won the Group 1 Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes aboard Porta Fortuna for Donnacha O’Brien, but this time he teamed up with British-based trainer William Haggas to claim the €1.25 million race.

The son of Night of Thunder held off last winner’s Auguste Rodin and Ryan Moore as the Aidan O’Brien-trained runner failed by a neck at the line to win a seventh Group 1 race.

The Japanese runner, Shin Emperor, was third a further three-quarters of a length behind the runner-up.

Economics becomes the first British-trained winner of the Group 1 Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes since Oisín Murphy guided Roaring Lion to victory for John Gosden in 2018.

Interestingly, this afternoon was Economics’ Group 1 debut and he becomes the first horse since Pentire in 1995 to break their Group 1 maiden in the Irish Champion Stakes.

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The winner of the Epsom Derby and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh earlier this year, Auguste Rodin has disappointed hugely on two occasions, namely the QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

This afternoon, however, the son of Deep Impact showed his battling qualities as he held off the challenge of his stable companion, and last year’s winner of the race, Luxembourg (Séamie Heffernan), by a half-length. Hollie Doyle aboard Nashwa was a short-head further back in third for John and Thady Gosden.

The three Ballydoyle runners, Luxembourg, Point Lonsdale (eventual 6th), and Auguste Rodin cut out the running in that order.

Ryan Moore and Auguste Rodin made their challenge on the outside of Luxembourg and Heffernan and fought off his stable companion’s challenge to claim a fourth career Group 1 success.

“It’s very satisfying to come back and prove how good he is.”

Ryan Moore hails Auguste Rodin and the training feats of Aidan O’Brien after a memorable Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes #IrishChampionsFestival | @BahrainTurfClub| @LeopardstownRC pic.twitter.com/d41tUMiPhu

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) September 9, 2023

The winning trainer, Aidan O’Brien, for whom it was a 12th Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes win, said of the winner:

“A couple of times this year it all went totally wrong. All the ducks went against him. Usually you want them all to go with you but they all went against him. Ryan (Moore, the winning rider), before it went completely wrong in Ascot, he took him out of the race so he did no mental or physical damage to him. That’s why he came out of the race so well.”

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