As the Irish Champions Festival prepares to celebrate its tenth anniversary this coming weekend (Sept 9-10) at Leopardstown and The Curragh, Steve Dennis examines what makes Irish Flat racing’s showcase event such a success story
Ireland: The racing industry is not noted for its zeal for collaborative change, with factional interests fighting each corner as though their backs were to the wall and a propensity for the reactionary outlook tending to stifle radical remodelling in its infancy.
There is nevertheless evidence of what can be achieved when everyone at the tug-of-war is pulling in the same direction, and one of the shining examples is the two-day Irish Champions Festival, with its unique split-site schedule at Leopardstown and The Curragh, which provides an intense focus for the Flat calendar in Ireland. With its date at the very first leaf-fall of autumn, the weekend has become the unofficial starter’s pistol for the end-of-year blitz of big international meetings.
Irish Champions Weekend – as it was known until this year – brought nothing original to the table apart from a bright new outlook, a fresh idea.
Stellar occasion
No new races were inaugurated, but existing races spread thinly across early autumn were herded amiably together into one stellar occasion, with an upgrade in status here and there to embellish the overall appearance. Together they found a coherence and a power in their proximity that made the sum so much bigger than the parts.
“I went to Champions Day at Ascot, saw what had been done there, and wondered whether we could do something similar,” he says. “Ireland didn’t have that sort of climax to the Flat season. I looked at the calendar and saw our big races in autumn languishing on their own, and thought we could bring them together.”
Foley almost shrugs it off as ‘packaging’, but even if he is indulged in this respect it was an absolute masterpiece of packaging. Mark Costello, general manager of the weekly turf newspaper The Irish Field, takes up the tale.
“Once upon a time it was all a bit hit-and-miss, a big race here, a big race there, it lacked a bit of excitement,” he says. “Joe’s idea was terrific. It pulled together all the bits and pieces and the industry was all for it.”
Everyone approved
There’s the key – the industry was all for it. “Everyone approved,” says trainer Jessica Harrington. “And it was the right weekend – three weeks out from the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, which was important for attracting international runners.”
Foley nods. “The idea took off, owners, trainers, racecourses, breeders, legislators,” he says. “We put it to Brian Kavanagh, who at the time was head of Horse Racing Ireland, and he was right behind it.”
Its instigation was the inspiration of Joe Foley, owner of Ballyhane Stud in County Carlow among his many other roles within the industry. The energetic Foley has been described as ‘a man who makes things happen’, and back in 2013 he found something in Britain that he wanted to make happen in Ireland.
Kavanagh’s enthusiasm was crucial, and not just at a local level. “One of the key factors was that Brian Kavanagh was also chairman of the European Pattern Committee, and he was able to push it all through,” says Costello. “Irish racing got the weekend it wanted at the date it wanted.”
So Irish Champions Weekend was born, and this year will mark its tenth edition. Such a simple idea, as the best ones often are, but one that has given Ireland a heavyweight Flat festival to compare favourably with those held anywhere else in the world.
Racing legend
The two days of the weekend are markedly different, adding to the broad appeal of the occasion. The marquee G1 Irish Champion Stakes, won in its standalone days by great horses such as Assert, Sadler’s Wells, Triptych, Daylami and Fantastic Light – whose duel with Galileo has gone down in racing legend – is the highlight of Saturday’s card at Leopardstown, backed up by a solid undercard of Group races and big handicaps.
Since its repositioning as the flagship of the weekend, winners have included Golden Horn, Almanzor and St Mark’s Basilica.
Then the circus moves 35 miles west to the Curragh, where on the Sunday the Irish St Leger heads a G1-heavy card that includes the National and the Moyglare Stud, Ireland’s top two-year-old races for colts and fillies. Something for everyone.
“The weekend has a pretty good balance,” says Harrington. “You have Group races for all aspects of the horse population backed up by some really good handicaps. The right races at the right distances.”
According to Costello, there’s more glamour attached to the day at Leopardstown – “the Irish Champion is always one of the big races of the year on a worldwide basis” – but the Curragh’s tally of four G1s is unmatched on a single day in Britain and Ireland.
At the outset, there were fears that the introduction of such an important weekend in one place would detract from established meetings in other places, notably the St Leger at Doncaster and Arc Trials day at Longchamp. But after ten years the landscape has settled, and the Irish Champions Festival has become an integral part of the racing calendar at home and abroad without overwhelming its neighbours.
“It’s been brilliant for Irish racing,” says Foley. “I think it can continue to grow, especially now the developments at the Curragh are complete.”
Dressed to the nines
While the two-day jamboree has earned a place on Ireland’s social calendar – expect to meet plenty of racegoers dressed to the nines, and not just for the fashion competitions – perhaps the only fly in the ointment is something that can’t be altered, something unique to the Irish psyche. Flat racing, you see, isn’t jump racing.
“In Ireland there’s more interest in jump racing, and even though this weekend is as good as it gets on the Flat, it’s still a hard sell to the public,” says Costello. “There just isn’t the connection between racegoers and Flat horses that there is with jumpers. It’s been brilliant for the industry but the public have been slower to love it – perhaps they should run a bumper on the Saturday!”
Perhaps a nation’s almost atavistic affection for the other code can’t be won over, but to even the most dyed-in-the-wool winter fanatic there is still something special about the extravaganza in early September that sets the tone for the final third of the Flat campaign.
In its nine years of existence it has played host to many outstanding horses, and everyone has their own particular favourites.
“I haven’t missed a day of it,” says Costello. “I felt lucky to be at Leopardstown for the Champion five years ago when Roaring Lion beat Saxon Warrior by a neck – Qipco sponsored the race that year and it meant the world to them to win their own race with such a good horse.”
Magic moments
Harrington can’t select a stand-out favourite from the memorable weekend in 2021 when she trained four winners, including Discoveries in the G1 Moyglare Stud and No Speak Alexander in the G1 Matron, and Foley is similarly distracted by a wealth of magic moments, but swiftly chooses one that will be high on many lists.
“The day in 2019, when Pat Smullen was present for his charity race at The Curragh,” he says. “It gave a great jockey a wider forum to announce his retirement, to celebrate his achievements, to take everything on board in front of his people. A lot 
of money was raised that day, it brought a lot of people together, and it was a very special moment.”
This glorious double-header weekend, made possible by bringing people together to bring races together to create a showpiece for Irish racing, now has a character all its own and it annually reinforces Ireland’s central position on the world stage.
Foley’s packaging is wrapped prettily around the gift that keeps on giving, a testament to the power of collaboration, what racing can do when will meets willingness. “It just works,” says Harrington, and it does, beautifully.
• Visit the Irish Champions Festival website and the Horse Racing Ireland website
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