Aidan O’Brien
Delacroix looks very good in the pale early-morning light as he has a pick of grass. Mark Crehan is to his left, a long, looping rein between them. About 10 minutes earlier, horse and rider had breezed up the hill behind you at Ballydoyle, easy and fluent, and back down now to stroll and take in the September sun. Delacroix lifts his forelegs off the ground and his rider lets him, pats him on the neck when he has all four hooves back on terra firma.
Delacroix pricks his ears.
“He’s just showing off now,” says Pat Keating, one of the key cogs in the Ballydoyle wheel. “He’s in some form.”
The countdown to the 2025 Irish Champions’ Festival starts here, with Delacroix stretching his legs and Aidan O’Brien answering questions. Not just about Delacroix, and not just about the team of horses that he is busy assembling for this weekend, final preparations now under way, but also about the Irish Champions Festival in general.
“I think that this weekend has changed European racing,” he says. “Really. It’s the perfect time of year, with the perfect races at the perfect tracks. And we want the best horses here. We want them to come from everywhere.”
They are on their way. Most of the best Irish horses will be there for sure, as well as some of the best from Britain. There are also entries from France, from Germany, from Australia. The Yoshito Yahagi-trained Shin Emperor has made the journey from Japan again. Third in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes last year, when he didn’t have a whole lot of luck in-running, he arrived in Ireland earlier this week, he has been living on The Curragh as he goes through his final preparations in advance of his bid to go two places better in Saturday’s feature race at Leopardstown.
No trainer has won the Irish Champion Stakes more often than Aidan O’Brien. This year is the 25thanniversary of his first, Giant’s Causeway, who got the better of the Godolphin horse Best Of The Bests, and then had enough in reserve to see off Greek Dance’s late lunge. And that rivalry between Ballydoyle and Godolphin, two of the behemoths of the world of horse racing, is a thread that has run through this weekend in general and this race in particular: Hawk Wing and Grandera, Magical and Ghaiyyath, Galileo and Fantastic Light.
Alas, there will not be a Godolphin representative in Saturday’s race. The decider between Delacroix and Ombudsman – one each from their skirmishes in the Eclipse (Delacroix) and the Juddmonte International (Ombudsman) – will not now come to pass on Saturday, with the John & Thady Gosden-trained colt set to by-pass the race.
Delacroix is on track though.
“We’re very happy with Delacroix,” says Aidan O’Brien. “Everything has gone well since York. The York race was a bit of a non-event really, but everything has been good since.”
The York race was the Juddmonte International, and it was a strangely-run affair this year. Ombudsman’s pacemaker Birr Castle, a 150/1 shot, went miles clear, he was still over 20 lengths clear when he passed the three-furlong marker, with the rest of the field, headed by Danon Decile, sitting well off him in a race that effectively developed into a dash for the line. Ombudsman got first run, Delacroix just couldn't bridge the gap.
“We have always thought that Delacroix is a good horse,” says his trainer. “We had it in our heads before York that what did happen in the race might happen, so we were going to follow the pacemaker. But when the Japanese horse got in front, it kind of changed the whole race.”
Winner of the Group 3 Autumn Stakes last year as a juvenile, and only just beaten in the Group 1 Futurity Trophy, the Dubawi colt won the two Derby trials at Leopardstown earlier this season, both races run over Saturday’s course and distance. He was well beaten in the Derby, but he bounced back to form when, dropped back down to 10 furlongs, probably his optimum trip, he produced a remarkable performance to win the Eclipse.
“He’s big and powerful, a big walker with loads of power. Everything about him is what you really want. He’s an outcross, by Dubawi out of Tepin, a Bernstein mare, and the ground doesn’t matter to him. He’s very happy on quick ground and he seems very happy with an ease in the ground as well. We’re looking forward to Saturday.”
Riding plans for Ballydoyle for the weekend have yet to be finalised but, with Ryan Moore out through injury and Wayne Lordan out through suspension, Christophe Soumillon, who rode Diego Valazquez to victory in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois last month, is very much in Aidan O’Brien’s plans.
“I don’t know how long Ryan is going to be out for,” says the trainer, “but I will tell him to take as much time as he needs. Christophe has ridden a lot for us. He has always been part of our plans. He’s a world-class jockey, everywhere in the world.”
The other Group 1 race at Leopardstown on Saturday is the Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes, and January heads the Ballydoyle challenge for that.
“She’s in good form,” says her trainer. “She went to go and win the Prix Rothschild last time, and she just got beaten. She comes there to win, and doesn't always follow through. Maybe we haven’t got it right with her. We’ve changed up a few things, we’ve changed her training regime a little bit, to see can we get that little bit of improvement. She’s a classy filly though.”
It looks like Jan Brueghel and Illinois are both set to line up in the Comer Group International Irish St Leger at The Curragh on Sunday. Jan Brueghel won the St Leger at Doncaster last year and has won the Coronation Cup at Epsom this year and finished fourth in the King George. Illinois finished second in the St Leger last year, just a neck behind his stable companion, and he has finished second in the Ascot Gold Cup and the Goodwood Cup this year.
“The lads are very happy for the two of them to run against each other,” says Aidan. “We made a hash of it with Jan Brueghel in the King George. We did the perfect thing with him in the Coronation Cup, then the completely wrong thing in the King George! There are plenty of days like that, it’s sport, you have to take the good with the bad, and you often learn more from the bad. He’s idle in front, he needs something to run at, but he stays well, and he’s in good form.”
Composing heads up the Ballydoyle challenge in the Moyglare Stud Stakes. Winner of the Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes and the Group 2 Debutante Stakes already this season, the logical step now for the Wootton Bassett filly is the Moyglare, and she is exciting.
The Coventry Stakes winner Gstaad is on track for the Group 1 National Stakes, and Whistlejacket is on track for the Flying Five. And a dark one for one of the handicaps? Light As Air in the Petingo Handicap on Saturday, especially if there is an ease in the ground.
He’s on track too.
© The Sunday Times, 7th September 2025
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