Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown

There is a late start today at Leopardstown, which stages ist biggest flat meeting of the year, and this will enable Messrs Moore, Doyle and Hanagan to fly over from Doncaster, where they all ride in the St. Leger, to ride in the Irish Champion Stakes at 19.50 CET three hours later. However the mlost they can hope for is place mondey, asAustralia (Aidan and Joseph O´Btriermn) Looks the cefrtainty of the day. The dual Derby winner won the big York race over this distance last time, and there seems to freason at all why The Grey Gatsby (Kevin Ryan/ Moore) or Mukhadram (William Haggas/ Hanagan) should now reverse that form. Al Kazeem (Roger Charlton/ Doyle) and Trading Leather (Jim Bolger/ Kevin Manning) finished second and third to The Fugúe last year, but was no Australia in the field then, and this 3yo, described by the trainer as his "best ever" looks the real deal. The only questions are - how easily will he win (answer: very), who will finish second (we don´t know) and where does he go from here? If he ran in the Arc he would certainly be a hot favourite, but all the signs are that he will wait for Champions Day at Ascot and either go for the Champion Stakes there or - best of all- take on Kingman jn the QEII.

The filles race over a mile at 18.45 is also a Group One and we will be interested to see how French raider Kenhope (Henri-Alex Pantall/ Christophe Lemaire) gets on after her easy win at Düsseldorf. The most she can hope for here is probably third place, as the O´Briens´ Tapestry and Rizeena (Clive Brittain/ Ryan Moore) stand out here. Tapestray won the Yorkshire Oaks but is down in trip here and is held by Rizeena on Ascot form. Brittain sounds very bullish - he always is, but we think he is right to be here, the only problem being whether the jockey makes it in time.

The other group races can go to Dermot Weld and Pat Smullen, who can score at 17.05 with Tombelaine, at 18.15 with Free Eagle and an hlour later with Mustajeeb.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Tamadhor - Chinese Light - Bocca Baciata
2. Race: Tombelaine - East India - Bertie Le Belge
3. Race: Wexford Town - Bayan - Cassells Rock
4. Race: Free Eagle - Hall Of Mirrors - Brendan Brackan
5. Race: Tapestry - Rizeena - Fiesolana
6. Race: Gordon Lord Byron - Mustajeeb - Darwin
7. Race: The Grey Gatsby - Mukhadram - Al Kazeem
8. Race: Stay De Night - Dalkova - Piri Wango