New Bay may add extra spice to Champion Stakes

A potentially epic QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes clash next Saturday could get another enticing ingredient added to it in the shape of the 2015 French Derby winner New Bay.

With this year’s Prix du Jockey Club hero Almanzor already committed to the €1.25 million contest, Leopardstown’s authorities are hopeful of an even stronger French connection emerging for their “Irish Champions Weekend” highlight.

The Andre Fabre-trained New Bay returned to action with a Group Three success at Deauville last month, and could take in the Champion Stakes on the way to Chantilly to try to improve his third placing in last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte team.

Declaration stage

“They are certainly considering the race for New Bay, and we believe New Bay is in the mix,” said Leopardstown’s chief executive

Pat Keogh

.

“We will know more at Tuesday’s declaration stage, but they’ve left him in and I notice his only other entry is the Arc.”

Attracting another top French runner, to go with Almanzor and Qemah in the Coolmore Matron Stakes, would be a considerable feather in Leopardstown’s cap and a further boost to the internationalisation of the €4.25 million “Champions Weekend”.

Dermot Weld still has both the Epsom and Curragh Derby winner Harzand and Fascinating Rock in the Champion Stakes mix, but it is Aidan O'Brien's star filly Minding who is now a general 2-1 favourite to beat the males after her trainer indicated she is likely to line up in the mile and a quarter contest.

Last year’s runner-up Found, as well as the King George winner Highland Reel, also look set to try and give O’Brien a record-breaking eighth victory in the Champion Stakes. O’Brien has outlined provisional plans for both Alice Springs and Somehow to contest the Matron Stakes.

It will be much lower fare material at Dundalk on Sunday but one starter who will bring an illustrious pedigree to the track is De Coronado who has a third career start in a seven-furlong conditions heat.

Zenyatta’s brother is a giant physical specimen who improved significantly for his debut to win over a mile here last month. If that rate of improvement has persisted he could be tough to beat.