Hotazhell Denies Wimbledon Hawkeye in Irish Champion Stakes

Leopardstown's championship weekend opened with a finish few in the stands saw coming. Hotazhell, who had finished only fourth in this same race twelve months earlier, ran down the field to win the Gr.1 Irish Champion Stakes by a nose from Wimbledon Hawkeye, with Constitution River three-quarters of a length back in third. It was a result built on an unconventional route to Dublin, a summer detour through Munich rather than the more familiar prep races, and it left Almaqam and Item, fresh from contesting the Gr.1 Juddmonte International Stakes together at York three weeks earlier, held in the minor placings in fourth and sixth. Jessica Harrington, training the winner, had waited three attempts at Wimbledon Hawkeye's expense before finally getting the better of him. Leopardstown's opening day produced a form line that will occupy handicappers for weeks, and a winner whose route back to the top of Group One racing raises as many questions as it answers.

Hotazhell Gets Up By A Nose

Leopardstown raced on good going for the opening day of its championship weekend, conditions that suited a strongly run mile and a quarter. From mid-division, Foley had shepherded Hotazhell through the race with cover, asking nothing of him until the final two furlongs, and the response when it came was sudden rather than gradual. Wimbledon Hawkeye, carrying the silks of VICTORIOUS FOREVER [LINK: https://tenfurlongsmagazine.com/interview/item/4654-victorious-forever-bahrain-s-bold-challenge-to-racing-s-elite-powers.html] for trainer George Scott and ridden by Christophe Soumillon, had timed his own run to perfection and looked to have done enough passing the furlong pole. Hotazhell found more again in the final strides, getting up to win by a nose on the line. The finish was not the only story in the closing stages: as the principals challenged down the middle of the track, they edged markedly left into A Boy Named Susie, who in turn carried the retreating Hawk Mountain into stablemate Lambourn near the inside rail. A Boy Named Susie held on for fifth, with Hawk Mountain seventh and Lambourn last of the eight in eighth. Foley was handed an 11-day careless riding ban for his part in the incident, though the placings themselves stood.

“It's fantastic to get this on the CV,” Harrington said. “These races are hard to come by and, by Christ, when you get them, enjoy them.”

Further back, Item, who had beaten Almaqam by a head when winning THE JUDDMONTE INTERNATIONAL STAKES AT YORK THREE WEEKS EARLIER [LINK: https://tenfurlongsmagazine.com/index.php/news/item-set-for-irish-champion-stakes-after-york-heroics], could finish only sixth this time as Almaqam reversed the placing to come home fourth, racing in the colours of Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum for trainer Ed Walker. George Scott's runner-up and Andrew Balding's below-form sixth both offered building blocks for autumn conversations elsewhere on the circuit, but it was Harrington's third success from three meetings with Wimbledon Hawkeye that dominated the paddock afterwards.

A Nose Down The Leopardstown Straight

Hotazhell's route to Dublin had run through the Gr.1 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis – Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in Munich in July, hardly the well-worn path to an Irish Champion Stakes, where he had beaten both Timeforshowcasing and Wimbledon Hawkeye, by a nose and half a length respectively. The choice to send a four-year-old to Bavaria in high summer rather than keep him ticking over at home was, in Harrington's own words, a considered gamble, and it stands as the clearest explanation for why he arrived at Leopardstown improving again rather than treading water.

Wimbledon Hawkeye's own preparation had followed a different but equally productive path. Victorious Forever's colours had been fresh from a Gr.3 win at Deauville in August, where Wimbledon Hawkeye beat two Wathnan Racing runners, Map Of Stars and First Look, home in second and third, underlining the depth of Gulf-owned form building through the older-horse ranks over the summer. That run left him unbeaten in two starts since Munich heading into Leopardstown, and explains why George Scott's colt had travelled to Ireland with his season still building rather than levelling off.

Foley, claiming his 13th Group One win and his first in this particular race, paid for the finish with his suspension but had little cause for complaint given Lambourn was fortunate to stay on his feet through the same incident. “He's a very, very good horse,” Foley said, “and I think in a proper, true-run mile-and-a-quarter race you see the best of him.” He is likely to be aimed at the equivalent race at Ascot next month.

For Aidan O'Brien, the placings told a mixed story. Constitution River had already won the Gr.1 Prix du Jockey Club and the Gr.1 Eclipse Stakes this season, and he ran with credit again here without adding the one prize that would have completed his year at the top table. Stablemates Hawk Mountain and Lambourn had done the pacemaking job asked of them even if the finish did not reward it.

Harrington, in her 80th year and training since taking over the licence from her late husband Johnny at Moone, County Kildare, 39 years ago, added a second Group One of the season to Hotazhell's record. The Irish Champion Stakes also carries Breeders' Cup Challenge Series status, meaning Hotazhell's nose now comes with a fees-paid berth in the Gr.1 Breeders' Cup Turf attached to it, whether or not connections choose to take it up. Elsewhere on the card, Darkness Falls added the Gr.1 Golden Fleece Stakes to open his own claims on next year's Derby picture, giving Leopardstown's opening day a second story worth telling by the time the last of the placings had gone up.

Leopardstown's opening day belonged, in the end, to a horse many had written off twelve months earlier in the same race. Hotazhell's Munich detour looked eccentric in July and vindicated in September, and Jessica Harrington's willingness to gamble on it produced the sort of Group One that redraws a season's form book rather than confirming it. Constitution River's Classic-winning campaign is still waiting for an Irish Champion Stakes to complete it, beaten for a second successive start at the highest level, and the placings behind him, from Almaqam's reversal of York to Wimbledon Hawkeye's third near-miss against the same rival, will occupy assessors well beyond Dublin. For a Bahrain-sponsored feature that drew Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum's colours into fourth and a Bahrain-owned runner-up in Wimbledon Hawkeye, the afternoon offered a reminder of how far Gulf interests now run through the middle and top of European Group One form, long before any of these horses are aimed east for the winter.

Race Info

Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes: 20:00 GST (17:00 IST) | Group One | 3yo+ | Thoroughbred | Turf | 1m2f (2,012m) | Good | €1,140,000 (US$1,318,980) | Rail Position: NA | Safety Limit: NA | Winning Time: 2m 2.53s (fast by 3.07s) | Prize Breakdown: 1st €711,250 (US$822,916) | 2nd €236,250 (US$273,341) | 3rd €111,250 (US$128,716) | 4th €48,750 (US$56,404) | 5th €23,750 (US$27,479) | 6th €11,250 (US$13,016) | 7th -€1,250 (-US$1,446) | 8th -€1,250 (-US$1,446)

Result

Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes: 1 Hotazhell (T: Mrs John Harrington / J: Shane Foley) | 2 Wimbledon Hawkeye (T: George Scott / J: Christophe Soumillon) | 3 Constitution River (T: A P O'Brien / J: Ryan Moore) | 4 Almaqam (T: Ed Walker / J: Kieran Shoemark) | 5 A Boy Named Susie (T: Donnacha Aidan O'Brien / J: Oisin Murphy) | 6 Item (T: Andrew Balding / J: Colin Keane) | 7 Hawk Mountain (T: A P O'Brien / J: Pierre-Charles Boudot) | 8 Lambourn (T: A P O'Brien / J: Declan McDonogh)